Chelsea 1 United 0: Player ratings

May 19, 2007

DISAPPOINTMENT: Paul Scholes and Alan Smith

Van der Sar: The Dutchman had an easy afternoon of it. The few times he was called upon it was handled with comfort and little chance with the goal 6

Brown: Had a tough afternoon, firstly with the slippery Cole and then with Robben in second half. Gave the Dutch sub a whack to keep him quiet 6

Heinze: Wright-Phillips asked a few questions of the Argentinian and in the main he came up with the answers - but it was touch and go 6

Ferdinand: Mopped up well for the most part but flat footed for Drogba winner 7

Vidic: Stuck like glue to Drogba and the Ivory Coast front man rarely managed to lose the Serb until he was given slip for goal 8

Ronaldo: Disappointing Wembley showing for the Player of the Season. The winger rarely got up a head of steam and any cross he produced was easily gobbled up 5

Fletcher: Began industriously but then he disappeared from the action. Main job was doubling up with Brown to keep Robben in tow 5

Scholes: An absorbing little and large battle with Mikel. Muscled out of it a few times but almost 100 per cent of United’s danger came from his boots 8

Carrick: His final contribution was sadly a bit of a reminder of the player who first arrived at Old Trafford. Only few glimpses of his late season confidence 5

Giggs: Had United’s best effort with a brilliant volley connection but the skipper had more frustrating moments than inspirational, and missed the late chance 6

Rooney: Frustrating first half when he had to come so deep to get involved. His power came to the fore and caused Chelsea problems but had no support 6

Subs:

Smith (sub Fletcher 92) Made little impression 5

Solskjaer (sub Giggs (112) Hardly touched ball 5

O’Shea (sub Carrick 112) No time to make an impact 5

Evra, Kuszczak not used

Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Bridge, Terry, Essien, Wright-Phillips (Kalou 93), Mikel, Lampard, Makelele, J Cole (Robben 45 (A Cole 108)), Drogba
Goals:

United:
Chelsea: Drogba (116)

Bookings:

United: Scholes (59) Vidic (85), Smith (105)
Chelsea: Makelele (84) Kalou (119), Ferreira (120) A Cole (120)

Referee: Steve Bennett - Controlled it well. 8

Attendance: 89,826

Agree with the ratings? Have your say.

Articles

Chelsea 1 United 0 (aet)

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DC, Amsterdam (19/05/2007 at 18:04)

To be fair, the lads looked exhausted. I don't think we can point the finger at anyone and say they played badly; but it showed that our squad is in need of a few more players. Not necessarily in this game, but if we could have rotated the team a few times in the last couple of months we would have been much fresher.

bobbydazzler (19/05/2007 at 18:04)

vds5,brown7,rio7.vidic,7heinze6,ronny3,scholes7,roo8,giggs4,carrick3,fletcher3. poor display poor tactics yet AGAIN.

Shaz Leicester (19/05/2007 at 18:10)

I bit kind with some of those ratings. Here's mine... VDS 6, Brown 8, Vidic , Rio 7, Heinze 6, Scholes 7, Carrick 3, Fletcher 5, Ronaldo 4, Giggs 3, Rooney 8. SAF Tactics 0

Footiegirl7, finland (19/05/2007 at 18:13)

Rooney should have gotten a 9.
He was man of the match.

!!Manchester rules!!

Steve, Glossop (19/05/2007 at 18:18)

I thought the back 4 were great Heinze 7 the others 8. Scholes showed Lumpard who's the daddy 8 as for Carrick generally not good enough I could go on but I accept it's been a long season 5. Fletcher 6 Giggsy poor corners mate 6 Rooney 7 Ronaldo 6 probably due to the tactics of Alex & Carloz 0.

Red Lou, Malta (19/05/2007 at 18:34)

The biggest disappointment today was again Ryan Giggs. Apart from a good volley which could have been a super goal, he was AS USUAL very erratic in his passing and lost possession whenever he had the ball. And to make matters worse he was guilty of the miss of the match.

LawrenceH, Mancunia (19/05/2007 at 18:38)

Let me start by saying that Scholes imposed himself, worked the midfield..thoroughly deserved the 8. Vidic looks like regaining his good form. Rooney looked out of touch but at least he worked hard. Can't say the same for the others though.

Pity that the others seemed happy to gift Chelski a lift for next season. Hate to sound negative after being champions but it is disappointing to end the season with back to back losses and so many players gone missing as if to remind us not to expect too much next season.

Ronaldo's mazy runs have become few and far between. He gets the ball, one or two step overs and invariably passes the ball back.

Carrick..big disappointment, was nowhere to be found and allowing doubts about him to surface again.

Fergie keeping faith in an ineffective Giggs for a whole 112 minutes is baffling. One wonders what Larsson could have done with those clear on goal chances given him. Then again we have no Larsson-class options on the bench.

Sorry for my rant pals. Wished we ended on a high but we are still *Champions*, something most of us never expected this season with zero transfer funds.

george (19/05/2007 at 18:50)

Steve glossop;I thought the defence was great and agree with your marks.We may need 4 midfielders! We were bullied out of it in the middle.The defeats tell us more than the victories,and some old stalwarts will have to make way.Evra looked dejected.It was bound to be a hard day for someone.

Liam, Manchester (19/05/2007 at 18:54)

VDS 6 (not much to do), Brown & Heinze 6, Rio & Vidic 7, Scholes & Rooney 8 but Roo should have done better with chances, Ronaldo 6 quiet but not nearly as bad as some make out, Carrick 3 never turned up, Fletch and Giggs 2 turned up but were playing more for Chelsea judging by the abysmal passing. Fergie 0 for bottling it and getting it wrong again. Steve Bennett 0 - can't excuse the defending but they scored pretty much straight from the free kick given against Smith for a great tackle. Chelsea 0 for ability but 10 for good fortune. Ah well - we'd have all taken the league at the start of the year. No danger of the scousers looking as tired as us or Chelsea on Wednesday seeing as they've rested their whole squad for everything except the CL for the last six months. Roll on next season....

de Meester, netherlands (19/05/2007 at 19:16)

As most times not in agreement with ratings.
Wes deserving a 7(good game), Heinze & CR - 4 (not worthy of any more!), Roo 8, (played well up top and alone!), Scholes edging best player 9. The sums not equal to the total performance -alas!
Ref - 4, missing Giggsy's pen, botted it! (Had his chavSki colours on under shirt!)
Have a good vacation boys, you have earned it!

Roy (19/05/2007 at 19:43)

LawrenceH, agree with all your comments. I thought Scholes was excellent, as was the defence. Im trying to work out if Sir Alex didn;t make the changes earlier because of the limited bench but I wish he would have brought Smith on with some 25mins to go and maybe even Evra as a fresh winger. The defeat hurt but what hurt most was the way we lost. There is much to learn from this season and Im sure Sir Alex has got some hard decisions to make this summer. There is also a need for two real class signings. Also Ronaldo can learn from today - it is hard to be critical of a player who contributed so much to winning the title but he was infuriating today.

Britt/Canada (19/05/2007 at 20:21)

Poor tatics, late substitutions,some lack of player fitness/committment and without doubt the worst midfield & squad that MU have had for many years...Please put DF out of he's misery,he may be your God son/countryman Alec, but MU supporters are very unhappy with him, for the life of me cannot understand why.Suppose that does not matter as they only pay to watch.Scholes again outstanding,best player on view...

Chapman (19/05/2007 at 20:36)

Let's put it this way,you were all home in time for tea and early bedtime.

Utd-For-Life, marseille ex-stretford (19/05/2007 at 20:45)

Poor game, and poor performances from both teams. It was so hard to watch, with very few flashes of the genius both teams have displayed all season.

I know the excuse of them being tired is being trotted out, but come on, this was the FA cup final!!!

Can't complain with the result, drogba took his goal well. Our best performers were rio, vidic at the back and scholes and rooney up front. Scholes passing was sublime today, and rooney seemed capable of running thro a brick wall at times.

Its a shame ronaldo was so quiete in this game. I don't think he even touched the ball in the opening 10 minutes. But as someone else said, he's alowed an off day after his performances this season.

I had hoped evra would have got the nod ahead of heinze and couldn't understand what fletch was doing on the right wing? Seemed very muddled to me.

We're still champions though, and chelsea are turning into a cup team.

VALTINHO, LISBON (19/05/2007 at 21:39)

HELLOOO...what did I say about CR being tired. Never seen him like that... All thanks to the extensive United squad.
Still have to congratulate everybody to go so far and win the PL with a squad with no good substitutes.....Ole should depart and so Smith.

Joe, Malta (19/05/2007 at 22:10)

Scholes and Rooney were the best players today although Rooney have to improve his finishing. Giggs was awful - not surprising, even at 27 he was never a 60 game a season player, let alone at 34. It was never going to be easy vs Chelsea. The defence was OK but considering the type of game it was, this is hardly surprising.
I do not think the tactics were that bad - the problem is that with Saha and Park out we did not have any options - Smith is too slow and Ole is a 20 minute a game player.

Rick (20/05/2007 at 01:10)

Giggs was the biggest letdown. Couldn't get past players. Couldn't make the killer pass. Passed when he should have shot. Missed when he did shoot. Muscled off the ball too easily and instead of getting up and fighting for the ball after he stands around and whinges at the ref. Basically lost the ball all the time. Frustrating.

topdog, canada (20/05/2007 at 03:09)

I think bobbydazzerler got it dead right I agree with with his ratings.It's time Giggs called it quits.Carrick was poor, I've never seen a player pass back to the player who passes to him as much as Carrick.Fletcher was abismal a poor excuse for a premier player.We definately need at least two top mid-fielders and a top class striker.Why Evra did'nt get in the game is beyond me.The defense I thought did a very good job but that MF is very ordinary.Bordering on poor????

latiy2k, Toronto GTA (20/05/2007 at 06:09)

O'Shea at fault for goal. A midfielder should track back when a player runs through the middle as Drogba did, but he just stood there and watch to see what is going to happen.

We need players next season as I had no faith that we had anyone on the bench to come on and make a difference. That said, it was clear that our season ended against Man City because the team has just not performed since then and who can blame them. I am sure if we had made the CL final there would have been energy for this game.

I am not upset, we did very well with little resources and I now look forward to the speculations and signings. But we seriously need to add players. Solskjaer cannot be part ofthe team anymore. Alan Smith, Richardson, Sylvestre are not good enough. We need a new striker to add to Rooney, Saha and Rossi. A new left and of course Hargreaves.

That is all for now.

Gerry, Glastonbury (20/05/2007 at 10:58)

Scholes performance was excellent and I was pleased that a couple of the Sunday rags gave him the MotM vote.
Some of his long passing was superb as he sprayed the ball about. It'll be a long time before you see a display as good as that at Wembley.
Rooney was the only one who looked like winning it for us as the game wore on. Wes also caught the eye along with all the back four until Drogba finally undid us.
Ronaldo left his season behind in Milan and Giggs possibly before that, with those two out of sorts it left Rooney isolated and United almost toothless.
Of course Giggs should have scored the winner but it has been such a great achievement to win back the Premiership that I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be. Does that make sense?

TMUF, Manchester (20/05/2007 at 11:38)

I think we were the better team and created the better chances and should have won. Giggs got into dangerous positions and could have won us the match if he was on his game. I think Rooney was the best on the pitch followed closely by Scholes.A few tweaks and we could have a 'perfect' squad

Fredrik, Sweden (20/05/2007 at 12:29)

Ronaldo was very disappointing and Carrick and Fletcher were alsonot good enough.

VALTINHO, LISBON (20/05/2007 at 13:32)

Cheslsea wasn't better and YES it was a poor game.
Sad to say it but it was clear from the bigining of the season that United would be lucky to win one competition and they did win the most important of the domestic ones. I believe in SAF words. "players were tired" and so were Chelsea players thats why it was a really boring game.

Kevin, Tralee, Eire (20/05/2007 at 13:51)

Was TMUF watching the same match as everyone else? Aside from Rio, Scholes Vidic & to a lesser extent Wes, nobody else showed up yesterday! Roo & Roony just ran down blind alleys all day& Giggs had 1 of his worst games ever (imo) in a United shirt. We were totally outmuscled in midfield & the 1 bit of good news today is the signing of OH, which should help rectify that problem for next season. Now for Mavuba & more importantly, an actual sriker! A guy who can put the ball in the net & not waste valuable chances, as happened a few times yesterday. It seems Huuntelaar is being watched today & looks like he may be on his way. Here's hoping.

meathman007, meath (20/05/2007 at 14:58)

TMUF - you really do talk some incredible rubbish - 'A few tweaks and we could have a 'perfect' squad' - if you genuinely believe that then you really know absolutely nothing about football. I reckon i talked to about 20 hardcore utd fans yesterday and they all agreed with the following points

The following players are NOT good enough for utd - smith, fletcher, ole, giggs, carrick, richardson, silvestre, kuzchak, oshea(as a midfielder), eagles and of course saha (injury prone and incredibly unreliable)
Ole and Giggs are legends but they are no longer up to it.
Now how can you possibly say our squad only needs tweaking?

At the very least we need to buy 2 midfielders, 1 winger and 1 striker - and not talking about squad signings, im talking about top class players like etoo, queresma etc.

Unfortunately this is not going to happen.
Unlike some people out there i dont think the lack of support from the glazers will be the only reason for this - i genuinely believe that fergie thinks fletcher etc are top players! - i think he will sign oh and maybe a cheap striker and that will be it.....

Giggs was so bad yesterday i found it hard to look at. He has to accomodated in the team now and thats just not good enough.

I know ronaldo was bad yesterday - but how can you put a player who got player of the year from the right wing out on the left wing? - he played the same hideous tactics away in milan and we all know how that worked out......

Finally can all the positive brigate out there finally admit that carrick is a waste of space. The lad couldnt dominate a league of ireland match. Im so fed up of people trying to justify the 17 million outlay on a player who is obviously out of his depth...

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