How on earth can you give a six to both Ronaldo and Larsson? CR was constantly in the game and showed some great skills, whereas Larsson (not for the first time in his spell at United) was largely anonymous for lengthy spells. Like everyone else, I'm sorry he's not going to be around for the rest of the season, and he can show some neat touches, but there were times today when I almost forgot he was out there.

Can't agree with the rating for Heinze. More like a 5. Why was Larsson not subbed for Smith when nothing was working between he and Rooney. Boy do we miss Saha.

Ronaldo has been very poor for a few months now he scored a great goal against Fulham but has been very poor in most games - a good start to the season but recently he has been our worst player.

Many players looked tired. Heinze was one of the exceptions - he looked good today. Rooney looked uninterested at times - apart from the well taken goal- he was too casual in his passing. Ronaldo was tightly marked and Styles allowed the Boro men to kick him whenever they wanted to. Giggs had some bright sparks at times. Carrick and O Shea are not the ideal pairing - at times they looked too similar. Both are slow and need someone more dynamic alongside them.
As for the defense, it was shaky at times especially in the 2 goal incidents. The first could be excused as some sort of misunderstanding but where was the marking in the 2 nd goal?

Yep dave i agree CR was far better than Larsson. Loved rooneys goal it was just a glimpse of the player he really is. Hopefully he will kick on from there. One good thing about a replay is scholesy will miss 1 less game of the league hopefully

Ratings are always contensious and probably a thankless task but some of these are outragous! Carrick had his best game in a United shirt and some of his long passing even eclipsed that of the Ginger Prince. He was utterly excellent and no less.
Were you in the bar or doing the crossword? I could go on about some of the others but I think you'll draw a response for sure, so I won't bother! Don't stop doing the ratings though!!!!!

Nobody deszerved more than a 5, totally lacking in creativity tonight. Alex Ferguson deserves a 3 for the night a 4 if he'd made at least 1 change and tried to give something from the bench, anything would have been better than oshea and carrick bumping intoi each other in midfield

I'm not sure anybody deserved above 6 today. I don't know whether it was because I was drinking coffee rather than beer or that United were having to play Middlesborough on a miserable blustery day on Teeside but this was a depressingly mundane performance. Rooney looked embarrassed to have scored and then did nothing for the rest of the game. What has happened to the boy this season?? He's up and down like a bride's nightdress. Ronaldo just ignored everyone else on the team and seemed vainly intent on living up to his star billing with one long run followed and a vacuous thirty yard shot after another. There was little team cohesion and like the last handful of games they had little idea of how to play with each other around the 18 yard box. From their recent form it seriously now looks as if the fizz and pop has gone out of United's play. Come back Keiran......all is forgiven. Come back Mary...where have you been??

Also agree that CR was our most dangerous attacker and was fouled more than once with tackles deserving of a yellow thought the ref was poor with this part of the game! Thought defensively no problem although Rio did fall asleep once and allowed the yak around the outside brought a good save from KK, 10 mins to go bring on a fiery smudger as as the game worn on larsson did become less efective...as did oshea who actually had a good 1st half....along with carrick still allround a better performance than the previous games!

I think you have most of the ratings bang on except for Neville. He cannot mark a post. Just count the games a goal has been scored in the area he should be marking. Arsenal, Fulham, Boro. He is a disgrace and we need to look for a new right back this summer. # 1 priority.

Fair assessments.
I would give Giggs a 8+, he was for me Man of the Match.
Larsson also played well often showing so much intelligence, as he chased wide passes, O'Shea did well also I feel, though at times he and carrick were both too deep.
Kuszczak started well, making two excellent saves early, however he needs to work on his ablity to deal with crosses.
The defence looked again - frigile in the dealing with crosses, and I cannot guess why lately we are having defensive problems. They are however of the same problems!

Ronaldo top man again. Thought JOS & Carrick were good in the first half though they were given alot of space. Sadly JOS later showed his poor touch & Carrick faded in the last quarter as usual but at least he showed more aggression. Heinze showed his qualities at the end but a bit of a damp squib for Larsson's last game. Great game.

It never ceases to amaze me how the same match manages to bring out so many contrasting opinions on it. Amazing! Well, I guess some people's opinions on different players rarely change, regardless of how they perform!

It was a better team performance at least, though we were a bit shot shy in the 2nd half, the goals we gave away were awful also,never thought i'd say it but O'shea inmidfield had a very good game,anyone found carrick yet as again except passing the ball sideways 5yrds disappeared, does anyone know if the replay counts as another game from scholes's suspension.

I watched it in the pub and don't remember too much :-/ The barmaid deserved a 10 though!

Comment from Gerry Glastonbury:
'Carrick had his best game in a United shirt and some of his long passing even eclipsed that of the Ginger Prince. He was utterly excellent and no less'

you really must have absolutely no idea a about football. Boro may as well have had no midfield and Carrick still failed to make any kind of impression on the match. He is one of the worst midfielders i have seen in a utd shirt. Robson, ince, keane etc would have despaired having to play alongside mr carrick in midfield.
Lets run through his 'abilities':
1.Slow
2.only scores about 2 goals a yr
3. Cant take control of a game
4. Needs an incredible amount of time on the ball
5. Always plays the ball backwards or sidewards instead of trying to get the team moving forward
6. Continously gives the ball away
7. Disappears against any decent opposition

He makes the odd decent long range pass in a game - does that make him a decent midfielder, no!

I never rated him at spurs or west ham and was annoyed when i first heard we were interested in him for 7 million - we ended up paying 17m! and i was disgusted
Fergie is incredibly stubborn and because of that we are going to have to put up with him for years to come.

How can anyone on here defend him when he cant make any kind of an impact against a non existent boro midfield. De Rossi and Perrota will laugh in his face and walk all over him when we play Roma.
It all comes down to a simple question:
Would carrick get anywhere near any of the top teams in Europes midfield?
Liverpool - Gerrard, Alonse: NO
Arsenal - Gilberto, Fabregas: NO
Chelsea - Ballack, Lampard, Essien - NO
Barcelona - Xavi, Deco Etc -NO
Milan - Pirlo, Gattuso - NO
Valencia - Baraja, Albelda - NO
Bayern - Van Bommel, Hargreaves - NO
Inter - Viera, cambiasso - NO

The list of top clubs he wouldnt get anywhere near goes on and on.
And to just make the point - Carrick wouldnt even get in a team like Evertons midfield - arteta and cahill are far superior

I have no vendetta against carrick and despite my disgust at him summer signing for UTD, i decided to give him my full support like the rest of the team
But i am fed up now with his continious ineffective and quite simply pathetic performances in midfield. How anyone on here can defend him is just beyond me.....

Thankfully i didn't get a ticket in the ballot ! I only saw the last few moments of the first half & all the second half so typically i caught the worst bits .... & they were poor. I honestly can't remember Schwarzer being troubled. As a Carrick fan, i thought second half was by far his worst performance for us. that said, comments from Meath are laughable ! Sure he's struggling of late but he's not on his own & if you don't realise what he's brought to the team this year (just like all those who knock Saha) then you don't know football either. Hansen whilst being a scouse lover, does talk 100% common sense though and he sure knows quality player, of which MC is. Rooney has been dreadful of late, Ron not at his best BUT if you think these lads can play like world beater in each of the 60 or 70 games they play every year then you're in cloud cuckoo land !

Every year there is a player that Mu fans are looking to target in order to have something to say. All the 11 players we had on the pitch played well and as in every team some of them were above the others:Giggs,Ronaldo,Heinze. Oshea even had his best game this year and we should be at least happy that we played 50 times better than our last 5 games.
In the side of improvement we really need:
1- Rooney to start firing
2- Ronaldo to have more assists and add more variety to his free kick.
3- Kuschak to work on crosses as he is useless in that area of the game.
4- Carrick to run more with the ball.
5- Fergie to keep it simple which means 4-4-2.

I missed the game annoyingly, but if STEVE says Carrick was good, then he must have done well, regardless of what Meatman says (apply your criteria to Makalele, mate - is HE a bad player?).

First 40 minutes were our best, Balders, in fact they were the best 40 minutes of football we've played in ages. You obviously put a hex on us. Any chance you could sit out our next game? Either that or change your unlucky socks?

Carrick and O'Shea were both excellent in the first-half. Not so good in the second. But definitely a step in the right direction and massively reassuring if (like me) you've been worried about the prospect of the two of them playing without Scholes.

heres a suprise from me mick i actually thought oshea did ok in this game for us.

Football. It's a funny old game isn't it? We play better than we have for a good while and still some people are moaning - fussy devils. I thought O'Shea did really well in the first half but only as well as Carrick - seems that he has been rated higher because 1. People don't expect it and 2. He isn't Carrick - Carrick actually ran at one point guys so should be at least a 7! Lol. I think Larsson's departure may be a shame in terms of back up but I do think we have looked sometimes clueless up front while Fergie has been selecting him - he got away with it against Lille but sad to say he was inconspicuous (or whatever) on Saturday but thanks and all the best anyway Henke. Obviously due to my great bias I also have to big up Heinze who I thought was outstanding but no doubt he'll be back on the bench before I can say Dodgy French Defender - Yes you guessed it I'm talking about Prunier. Everyone elses comments about Rooney and Ronaldo - Rooney wasn't good but got a goal, Ronnie was good and also got a goal so what's with the Ronaldo detractors?

CHEERS MICK, i often feel that too although in recent times it's spread to my daughter so i've banned her from 'big games' !!My old man said we were good first half so that's a positive and with a few home games coming up, i'm hoping we're on the up ! Jeez, if we can't be full of confidence after getting through this tough period, we never will be ! There's a surprise Liam, ron was good, well i'll have to go with your totally unbiased viewpoint ! Roon is still a concern and i am bothered about his all round game. I'm now moving into the theory that SAF/CQ are trying to make him into something that he's not or struggling to become ! He looks lost when the ball is played to him and seems jittery/worried about ensuring he takes the correct option. As i've said before, when he's around or heading into the box/cental areas (ala the goal) he looks the player. Take him away from there & he struggles. Anyway, perhaps this period now, where he'll have to play upfront will help him although he won't have saha as his foil which imo is when Roon plays his best football.

Fantastic season.However improvement is possible. A few small suggestions:
1.Scholsey- To be instructed never to go to ground when tackling. 95% of his yellow cards are in the oppositions half of the field or in the midfield area and are totally unnecessary.Just stand tall in front of the opposing player or if necessary let him go in this area.
2.Ronaldo: Never to be let near a free kick more than 30 yards out. He would attempt a score from 50 yards!!It always ends up in the wall or the grandstand. Just let Giggs curl one!
3.Corners: Ditto. Only to be taken by Giggs/Carrick/Scholes - Ronaldo is our 2nd best header of a ball and is needed in the centre. (Rio not to bother wasting his energy coming up for them.)
4.Most Important: Hire a defensive coach who can teach the defense how to defend corners and free kicks from the wings.My heart is in my mouth every time we concede a free kick in this area or a corner. Its been going on for several years and clearly the present coaching staff will never sort it!