United 1 Zenit St Petersburg 2: Player ratings

Stuart Mathieson

August 29, 2008

6 Van der Sar: Decent first-half stop at his far post but didn’t dominate his area at crucial times

5 Neville: Made a few trademark surges down flank but defensively he was caught out at times

6 Evra: Didn’t get the proper help he needed from Nani

6 Ferdinand: A mixed bag. Got caught back-pedalling for Danny’s goal

7 Vidic: The best of United’s defence and up front as well!

5 Fletcher: No opportunities to make a near post dash to add to his scoring run

5 Anderson: Nowhere near the impact he made at Portsmouth

6 Scholes: Didn’t waste much but couldn’t completely get a grip on midfield

5 Nani: Defensively lost his man a lot and wasn’t that sharp in attack

6 Rooney: Playing centrally but didn’t get a lot to do

9 Tevez: Zipped around Monaco like a Formula 1 car. Easily United’s man of the match

Substitutes: O’Shea (Anderson 59) Livened things up -6, Park (Fletcher 59) Lively effort - 5 Brown (Neville 76) Not much to do -5

Not used: Gibson, Possebon, Campbell, Kuszczak

Zenit St Petersburg: Malafeev, Anyukov, Sirl, Krizanac (Radimov 70), Puygrenier (Shirokov 62), Zyryanov, Tymoschuk, Danny, Denisov, Dominguez (Arshavin 45), Pogrebnyak

Bookings: United: Scholes (45&90) Anderson (54) Tevez (74) Zenit: None

Battle of the Bosses: Dick Advocaat clearly got his side up for this more than Fergie

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark) - Handled it well 7

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emilios1980, athens (29/08/2008 at 21:44)

united dissapoint the fans.expect goals from players like fletcher and vidic?rooney today play or not play are the same.united need a striker...berbatov is the answer

Gary Breen's Handball (29/08/2008 at 21:46)

Well that was interesting. O'Shea was far better than Anderson, in fact I think he was the most dangerous player forcing two saves, and with his and Park's inclusion the team performed much better. I don't want to see Anderson and Scholes team up in CM in 4-4-2 ever again, in fact I haven't since the atrocious game against City in February (and I even warned against it at the time).

I thought Brown did excellent when he came on, no doubt he should be first choice. Other than that there were not many positives, except from Tevez of course who continues to excel. It is clear that the team is at present very one-dimensional. I hope we sign someone.

Infijar Ken, Angola (29/08/2008 at 21:49)

Scholes, the new Maradona.

danny, WILMSLOW (29/08/2008 at 21:49)

Very sad how few of Uniteds players showed the spirit to win,Tevez is a hero Evra also did his best.yet again SCHOLES lets the team down with his stupidty only a fool never learns his lesson.
Rooney has defo gone off the boil and marrige has done him no good.
Fergie keeps playing has beens he had de silva twins or Posseban.
Somebdy with Flare for gods sake GARY NEVILLE IS FINISHED
No wonder RED Rom was laughing his head off at the end.
Berbatov could end up at Munich perfect revenge after selling us another sick note and Carrick.How come our players are always injured yet LAMPARD can go a whole season.
Rio best defender I never believed that without VIdic HE FALLS ASLEEP.

reddevil4ever, Chennai (29/08/2008 at 21:50)

0 for Paul Scholes, I hang my head in shame.
The summer's drama has taken a great toll on our team.
10 for their new signing Danny, he made us look ordinary.Brilliant!
Most importantly we were nothing without Tevez. 10.

Sam Davis (29/08/2008 at 21:52)

I absolutely do not understand what has happened to Rooney. I want someone to explain to me exactly what position he plays and if he understands we need someone to put the ball in the net. Defense rubbish tonight. Ferdinand and Evra pulled out of position.
We have absolutely no attacking threat at the moment. Something, I thought you would never say about a United team. Incredible.

Mrs Fullaway`s lodger (29/08/2008 at 21:53)

What was that?

Never thought we`d put in a show like that, not after Sir Fergie said he wanted to win this one... OK it doesn`t mean much but ffs

Very low ratings (except Tevez) and I agree with them. We looked as if we`d already played for 90 minutes prior to kick off. What was up with Rio? Gazza was not up to it, Fletcher kicked the ball once I think and that was into touch. Oh dear oh dear.

Scholesy was daft to try that Maradona slap, is he now banned in our first group game against Villareal? I think he is...

What a waste of energy.

And then Abramovich laughing and applauding... Horrible, disgusting. Its enuff to make yer wanna vomit!

britus (ex-pat), Oregon, USA (29/08/2008 at 21:56)

Neville, Rooney and Nani deserved less, as does Scholes for getting sent off. United were out thought, out played. out classed and clueless tonight until the last 20 minutes. I thought for a minute I was watching City. I sure hope they snap out of this dream state they appear to be in before the next match. Tevez was magnificent in the circumstances.

Robbo, N2409 (29/08/2008 at 22:01)

Andy Townsend is too stupid to appear on television. Discuss.

Gerry, Glastonbury (29/08/2008 at 22:02)

Can't argue with the scores really. Tevez as was as excellent as Nani was poor.
Rooney again looked no better than a championship striker and never looked like scoring - his form is becoming a real worry. He's going backwards at he moment!!! He wouldn't look good in the Bristol City side the way he's playing.
What can you say about Scholes? What an utter pillock yet again. WHY, WHY, WHY!!!!!
Nice to see Park back but why no game time for Campbell?
Wasn't really looking forward to the game and that peformance didn't help. Glad it's out of the way. No trophy and Scholes suspended.
O'Shea gets a run but Campbell stays on the bench - YAWN.

Happy Valley Barry, San Francisco, California (29/08/2008 at 22:03)

No big deal, bring on
Liverpool and Chelsea.
Up the Reds,

Robbo, N2409 (29/08/2008 at 22:04)

Calm down, people. Glorified friendly - would have been nice to win, but we didn't. Ps No-one died.

ChateThailand, Bangkok Thailand (29/08/2008 at 22:04)

From today match, we can see that if we want success this season, we need to bring at least one world class striker.

Rooney today, based on this kind of performance, will never ever be considered as a top class striker anymore. He has no confidence, lack of sharpness and imagination to attack. When was the last time this lads scored??? Can we remember???

As a United fans, we all want our team to win. Yes, in modern football, goals can come from any position. However, when the team need a goal badly, striker should be the one that take responsibility. Rooney today tried to keep saying that he is not a selfish player. However, as a striker, we need you to score. Otherwise, it will end up like today. Yes, we all hurt..

From today match, we can see that Rooney has chances. Infact he has many chances, but none of them is a goal. Did you see the chance that provide in the first half??? That must be a goal, and if he scored, I think we will win this trophy.

In the second half, Rooney seems to have no confidence to shoot. Many times in the final quarter of the game, Rooney is in the very good position to shoot, but refuse to take responsibility and decide to pas it to Park and others. All of them fail.

Bring in players like Berbatov to play along with Tevez. Drop Rooney until he get back to his best. Otherwise, we will struggling toscore goals.

Khalad Mahmood, Silet, Bangladesh (29/08/2008 at 22:21)

Thought the MEN guy would still give Scholes man of the match.

ENGINEER, Heywood (29/08/2008 at 22:22)

Marks are all to high for Rio Nani Fletcher, Anderson, Rooney I would give the all a 2 at most. As a team 2. total rubbish

Pepe (29/08/2008 at 22:24)

what's happening with Rooney lately.... can't find his touch.

tooth&claw, manchester (29/08/2008 at 22:26)

Six for everyone except Nani a 3, Neville a 3, Rio a 5, Tevez a 7, Rooney a 7.

I don't think we'll see that sort of perfromance again.

We need someone to take charge at set pieces, if Edwin doesn't do it, bring in Foster. But it should be Rio and he's been at fault.

keithmat (29/08/2008 at 22:31)

Maybe SAF could get that big centre forward in his flight bag and bring him home.

manu expert (29/08/2008 at 22:31)

nani was shocking, how he played the whole game baffled me.also why did fergie pick neville ahead of brown? neville's days are gone as a first teamer and fergie should accept it rather then to give him another contract.

argyred, argentina (29/08/2008 at 22:33)

Sir Charles Tevez AGAIN - Superb. 9/10 only decent player tonight. other like Rio, Vida. Evra, ...jeez I am lost for words.. the rest crap! Neville - a guest note/motivational speaker for 12yr olds - 1/10
Seems like we are a one horse pony show without CR7 - Rooney playing like he is still on honeymoon wishing he was back at Everton Utd??
We''l be lucky at this rate to qualify for Eufa spot next season. As for Real Madrid with Zenit in their group...oooerrr! I fancy them to go all the way -- have no ill feelings for their victory tonight, just really disappointed that players like JOS can still play for Utd - last good game was the season he broke into the Utd team. Transfer window closing we need to buy a striker ?? and a few more ...give the da Silva twins a run. Neville - so overrated its untrue -- supporting Utd for +30yrs... think even Duxbury was better.

Lee , Heywood, Heywood (29/08/2008 at 23:00)

On another thread it was claimed that Rooney was Uniteds current best and most influential player. Rubbish. He was for a period when he first came when truely great players like Keane and Ruud and even Scholes were coming down from their summits and Ronaldo was starting to climb his mountain. Rooney started at a good level and we won a Carling cup however he has not improved and whilst still an important member of the team we need a focal point that is better than he is. Ronaldo is our best and most influential player by a mile and since he has fullfilled a potential that was always far greater than Rooneys, due to being technically from another planet as well as faster and two footed and with a greater understanding on how to make an impact,we have won two leagues and a CL. Trouble is Ronaldo wont be around forever so we must find someone else. Berbatov. He has that touch of class and technique. Rooney is a foil for truely world class players and I am not convinced he is even potentially world class although at times (rare) he has shown he could have that ability. What he has along with his work rate will make him a great United player but I honestly think Tevez is a better footballer. Ronaldo is clearly our best player and most influential. Rooney for the last two seasons has been fairly ordinary. I hope I am wrong but I think he peaked at 18 !! In fact looking at his hair line and facial features I wouldnt mind checking his birth certificate.

Mark (29/08/2008 at 23:14)

I think we should take Fergie outside and beat the living daylights out of him. Have a word with yourself people, meant miles more to them them us. Is Gary Neville the new whipping boy, like Scholesy was last year (he's too old, until he hits it into the top corner vs Barca)? or is it Nani like Carrick (he is no good, until he turns out to bethe most consistent midfielder we have) etc. etc. etc.blah, blah, blah. All you clowns seem to disappear in April when we are top of the league and in the SF of the Champions league. I wonder some times who actually writes in to this page.

Kevin, Tralee, Eire (29/08/2008 at 23:20)

No need for discussion Robbo, youve nailed it.

Cum_2_Termz (30/08/2008 at 00:16)

What was this poor performance about it seem'd like utd just played Chelsea before the game have started! van der sar, rio & scholes all showed their upsets of missing out on europes best player positions awards. The whole starting line-up 4's rooney were the ffs was ya!!!!! as for TEVEZ IMENCE a 10! he's definitely the main striker to partner dare I say it Berbatov upfront!!!!

Michio, County Louth (30/08/2008 at 00:16)

Andy Townsend is too stupid to appear on television. Discuss.
Robbo, N2409

Is a discussion really necessary?

I watched it on Irish television, we got Mark Lawrenson (dear God!) and Norman Whiteside (who couldn't have done much worse if he'd played tonight even if he has filled out a bit!).

Ah well. Thought O'Shea was good. :)

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