The result on Sunday against Manchester City was very disappointing and if you are looking for some positives to take from the game, then you’re going to have to look very hard. These are our player ratings for the game at the Etihad.
David De Gea – This was one of the worst performances of the season for the young Spaniard. Whether or not he could have had a stronger hand and made a difference to Aguero’s second or not is another debate. Almost spilled a rather routine stop into his own net too. Compounding this with conceeding four goals means he’s not going to want to remember this one. – (3)
Patrice Evra – After being one of the best performing United players up until now in the season it seemed to all fall apart today. Evra lost his men a lot and seemed to be missing completely at times. The only positives are that he came close to scoring with a header off the post, in the last thirty minutes he seemed to get forward more. – (4)
Nemanja Vidic – Seemed to struggle dealing with Negredo or Aguero who played about as well as any City fan could have hoped for. Worked hard to keep going till the final whistle to avoid the result getting even worse. – (4)
Rio Ferdinand – It’s not often that Rio goes missing in games but this was one where he had very little influence. City seemed to play around him. – (3)
Chris Smalling – Lost his men far too much, worked hard but just didn’t seem able to produce the standard required to stop the City attack. Became a lot more involved in the second half as United got more of the ball. – (4)
Ashley Young – High work rate, low standard. Numerous incomplete passes, didn’t seem able to use his pace, lost the ball too much. From a team of bad performances his was the worst. – (2)
Michael Carrick – Didn’t seem able exercise any control on the game. Spent a lot of his time working on the defensive side of the game. Seemed to work hard without much reward. – (5)
Marouane Fellaini – Had a torrid time in the first half as he worked in a defensive mode. Much like Carrick he didn’t seem to be able to take much control. Improved in the second half when he pushed forward after the addition of Cleverley but it was too little too late. Lost Toure for the second goal and seemed slow and showed a low work rate. – (4)
Antonio Valencia – Improving performances since the start of the season mean nothing on derby day and Valencia fell apart at times. Worked hard as always but lost his man on the first goal, this encounter with Kolarov seemed to challenge him through the day, a challenge he repeatedly lost. – (5)
Wayne Rooney – This was about the only player on the United team that deserved anything from the game. Involved in everything good from United but with little to no support it was always going to be an uphill struggle. A great free kick at the end for a consolation goal. – (7)
Danny Welbeck – Replacing Van Persie was going to be hard and he never really seemed to match up. Danny worked tirelessly but didn’t seem to have enough ideas to unlock the City defence. – (4)
Subs:
Tom Cleverley – (On for Young, 52 min) – Came on after the damage was done and instantly appeared the most relaxed of the United midfield on the ball. Offered himself as a willing receiver of the pass, got involved with most that United produced before the end. – (6)
Do you agree with Michael’s player ratings for the Manchester Derby? Comment in the section below.
22 replies on “Player Ratings: Manchester City 4-1 Manchester United”
Young 1 for me. He even shouldn’t be on the bench. He’s one of the most overrated player in EPL.
Marouane should be lower, he had a shocker today, you can’t have that on the same level as Vidic, Fellaini had a dire performance, unfortunately.
Although Cleverley looked better than most when he came on, it was at a time when City had eased off the intensity of their game. So take it for what its worth.
players like Young,welbeck,anderson should not be in man utd squad because of them man utd will not improve.But where is kagawa and nani.Moyes is not using his Guts.
Time for Adnan Janazaj to replace young. City were class today. The jury’s out on Moyes. I think we will come back strong. Keep faith United fans 🙂
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Kid is brilliant, but you can’t expect him to solve the problems quite yet. He would have been destroyed yesterday due to small stature alone. Potential is there – but needs to bulk up and get more experience before we can say he should replace Young.
Januzaj wuld av been better than young
Young shld b out on loan in a championship side
young should be sold to a championship side in january or next september utd will be a championship side
It’s the ‘missing in action’ tag which is the most concerning for me. Any player can have an off day but a team full of non-triers is hard to take.
Welbeck’s touch seemed off in the final third so maybe I’d drop him a point. He doesn’t seem to be getting the types of balls played through from United as he does from the England squad…? I’d also maybe drop Vida a point. Has he always been so casual in the back? It seems like he hasn’t been there mentally and the focus isn’t there. He’s made a few passes around the back that had me holding my breath because of the ensuing City players.
That being said, I think our weakness is currently on the flanks. Evra, Smalling, Young, and Valencia all lost marks down the side and in transition. Not to mention our wing players provide no threat without a 1v1 attacking ability. City pressed high defensively and hindered our ability to get possession because we don’t have the players with the tactical skill and quickness to punish them for getting too close.
United lacked energy defensively, not just from the back four, but in the midfield, individually, all across the pitch. There were countless 50/50 balls that they either didn’t win or won with little conviction. When your first touch, passing, or possession are struggling, high energy defensively is what buys you more time to get back into the game. At the very least, they need to that scrappy, high energy play to meet the bottom line.
I would much rather lose with exceptional young players going through growing pains than with sub par Ashley Youngs. If we’re not going to win the league this year, I would hope we would at least get some good development and experience out of the young guys as consolation…rather than exhausting all use out of the likes of Young and Anderson before pulling the cord on them and having no experienced youngsters prepare to take over.
wrong choice of manager moyes out now take your garbage felover don’t bother with baines and sack shrek to or championship here we come
i m not able to understand why moyes is still giving chance to monkey face “welbeck” and diver award winner “young”. both r useless for manu .
i would prefer januzaj and zaha over them.
where is chicharito ?? moyes be brave give young guns chance instead of this shitty players
Fellaini should’ve been substituted at the break as well as Young. Utd were not united today at all. I still don’t believe Moyes went for Fellaini instead of Bsines, plus he’s not worth £27m.
that is not my beloved Utd. Could believe my eyes. Nani, Kagawa, etc. all left on the bench…I’m starting doubting Moyes and his coaching team, although I keep hoping we will see better days soon.
Fellaini should’ve been substituted at the break as well as Young. Utd were not united today at all. I still don’t believe Moyes went for Fellaini instead of Baines, plus he’s not worth £27m. that is not my beloved Utd. Couldn’t believe my eyes. Nani, Kagawa, etc. all left on the bench…I’m starting doubting Moyes and his coaching team, although I keep hoping we will see better days soon.
Sack moyes shrek and felover RUBBISH sign Di canio suarez ronaldo or we are doomed to championship
Sack moyes? You are talking rubbish, needs at least two seasons to prove himself, and why would you want Suarez ir di canio at our club?
Need sort this team or we will get batterd by liverpool
kagawa..why boss?
give him more minutes to play..
Kagawa should start every game so as to establish himself properly as a key player.
Januzaj should get regular game time, not necessarily 90 mins, but plenty of opportunity.
Zaha is a bit raw but can terrorise fullbacks, give him a go.
Nani signs a new 5 year contract and then isn’t played. He can be a match winner.
Poor Chicharito has been treated ridiculously. How can he get into a goalscoring rhythm if he doesn’t play much. I wouldn’t blame him for moving on.
Moyes, went for Ashley Young bcuz of his work rate but he is so ineffective going forward. I am tired of moyes making excuses that he is still trying to get use to the players. I am not a fan of wellbeck, young and ferdinand, so i dont know y moyes continues to start a man that is on one year contract. Moyes better start getting it right bcuz our imagine is being threatened.
Most worrying for me was moyes inability to substitute when faced with the catastrophic failings of young and fellaini .maybe the latter cannot be substituted as that would indicate poor judgement from the manager who has years of experience of the player and paid 27 million for him.he seems to be one paced
i suspect some of the wigs are already on the way to the tip ,