Difficult to rate players in a game like this but we see it all the time except this time the opposition scored and we had to chase it rather than find a winner. Tevez and Nani for me are not our future. We need to get a look at Manucho and Wellbeck before January because Tevez is not worth 30 million. He might be to a team like City but I'd rather go after a proven left winger with the money. JOS has lost whatever he had. His distribution is awful.

Vidic mom by a mile, I think he won everything at both ends,nani no brain didnt do anything except choose the wrong options as usual, carrick passed okay and actually ran once but him and fletcher dont create anything, and carrick lost everyone of his 50/50's. Ronaldo had a mixed game but kept trying,lots of crosses but no one in the middle as usual,o'shea did ok but the difference when evra appears is frightning if only we had the same player on the right also,rafael first time someone has attacked him and he didnt look great. Tevez was a lonely figure upfront and due to his lack of chances is probably trying to hard to impress, and he wasn't too chuffed about going off.
Giggs goal apart was awful constantly giving the ball away, and someone please tell fergie giggs upfront unless at home against poor opposition does not work,finally berbatov neat passes but please like carrick a few times tonight try your luck with a shot, and I cant believe his miss at the end.
We had better get a good result at the emirates after resting players or this will have been a wasted experiment,hopefully brown will be back for rb.

Bit harsh on Fletch and Carrick (did I really just say that?), who were tidily dominant throughout. Foster was very flat-footed on the goal, Rafael quite decent after a shaky start, Giggs bit rubbish in the main but deserves credit for the goal.

Ps Oi! Berba-slob! Wake up!

BF 6; RdS 6, RF 6, NV 7, JOP 6; MC 7, Super Fletch! 7, RG 6; CR 7, CT 7, NANI 6.

Berb 5, PE 6, WR 6.

Lew, Ontario., Canada,tevez & nani not for the future,nani definitely is & hopefully tevez is too coz he was better than Berb who missed a sitter other half chances too & considering tevez isnt match fit it wasnt a bad performance considering he hardly found anyone to support him in attack coz giggsy isnt good as a forward or winger anymore.U even suggested to try manucho & wellbeck.They are nothing compared to tevez & wellbeck is one for the future & still not mature enough to play this season for the first team.Manucho maybe a good sub-nowhere close to carlitos though.

Not a great result considering our domination but it could have been far worse - not unlike the last game here.
I think most will talk about the initial team selection rather than actual players' scores. The players that were out there totally dominated but why not put on the best first, get the lead and then give the squad players a run?
We've fallen down like this so many times in the past.
You can see the Villareal game being a real yawn can't you with both sides needing just a point.

i think it is a fair comment to say that JOS is the worst excuse for a footballer i have seen in my life!! i say that as a proud Irishman...he offers nothing to the team and his basic inabilities have an effect on the player directly in front of him...tonight it was Nani who suffered, JOS cannot overlap, cannot move his feet quick enough and his passing is non existant, well unless you play for the opposition!!

Why take off young Rafael??

So, we succeeded yet again in making a seiously poor team look good against us, Celtic are a very poor team, we should have buried them!! But Giggs, no bite in midfield, Anderson was needed..

Tevez gets a start and he is left isolated up front, how does that help him??

Foster, cant really be judged as he had nothing to do other than pick the ball out of his net once, was he flat footed?? not sure!!

At least Aalborg held Villareal...

now onto the gooners who are seriously de moralised right now, here's hoping we finish them off!!!

good to have Carrick back!!

Gerry, no-one likes a moan more than me, but I was genuinely very happy with the team selection (Giggs's inclusion aside). Arsenal is a really important fixture; by comparison, given the context of the group, tonight's game simply wasn't.

Beat Arsenal on Saturday and, assuming we beat Fulham, we're a maximum of two points behind the leaders with some of our hardest fixtures already done and dusted.

Saturday definitely comes first.

what is it that nani does that people still think his one for the future? last night he did nothing right. i think we should swap him plus cash for veloso, who can replace that insurence right-off hargreaves.

Just back at the hotel, opened up the MEN site and stunned by the negativity. What's wrong with you people?

Anyway, ratings... Foster - 6 - little to do. One dodgy take of a cross. da Silva - 5 - Poor defensively OK going forward, at fault for the goal. Rio - 6 - Something's troubling that lad, not steady. Vidic - 7 - combative. JOS - 6 - distribution not great at times but little got past him. DF - 8 - ran the show. MC - 7 - great touches but isn't back to full fitness and sharpness yet. RG - 7 - would have been a six but for the goal. CR - 8 - constant threat but went to ground too easily and he should lose the imaginary yellow card he waved. CT - 6 - adequate. Nani - 6 - nearly adequate but lost control of the ball too often and his crossing was iffy. Subs. DB - 4 - not alert after his first half snooze on the bench. PE - 6 - not enough time to impress. WR - 6 - added some verve when he appeared but too little time.

Overall, we got the result we needed. the match was nearer to my assessment than most other armchair pundits. SAF played the formation I thought he would, although he moved to the extreme formations towards the end. He took a bit of a risk with the selection but it paid off in the end. For me it was great entertainment and a cracking atmosphere. I was up in the executive seats in the North Stand and the tension amongst the Celtic fans was absolutely tangible. A good night out. Some great football to watch. Job done. Qualification all but wrapped up.

Omo, it's the 30 million part of the argument that needs discussing. I like him as well for his pure skill and industry but he isn't producing. Nani is as thick as two short planks. Always the wrong choice. Lots of skill and pace but no brain.

Could have been slippery, but by all accounts, looks like we are in the last 16 with two matches to spare.

Wish the team initially put on the pitch had completed the job. That way SAF would have had a fresh team for Arsenal as I think he wants to win that one and so do we!

Nani just isn't showing me much,in this game or any lately. I hope he turns it around.

Celtic confronted us exactly the same way we did Barcelona in last season's semi-finals.

The difference was that, as time ticked away, United never panicked. Instead, we made our passing more accurate and penetrative, until we finally recovered.

Hence, I believe this was a superb, mature display by the team. Otherwise we could have lost, as we did in 2006. We could have won too, and we should have, just don't remind Berba who's probably not sleeping tonight.

Someone said Carrick and Fletcher didn't create much. Well, how could they? There were 10 Celtic players behind the ball every time United attacked. Carrick and Fletcher, remember, were the midfielders when we creamed Roma 7-1, so they can create alright. The had a decent match. The weak links, unfortunately, were Nani and Giggs. With Giggs turning 35 soon, it is understandable. But Nani needs to put in a top performance soon as a reminder of his exceptional talents.

We're almost through, and the unbeaten Euro run extends to 17 matches.

Guys
i agree with all the comments concerning the result we should have got more out of the match!
However am I the only one who thinks Ronaldo should not be taking free kicks? David beckham he aint!! We waste perfectly good scoring oppotunities on the off chance that Ronaldo can score a spectacular goal!!!

Please SAF, work on something else in training and stop wasting good free kicks on Ronaldos ego!!

manu expert, totally agree with you, I've been advocating that for some time, Nani looks clueless to me and isn't improving. Why Giggs was still on the park baffles me, he contributed absolutely nothing and then gets the goal, bloody football eh! SAF did his best to show that he's learnt nothing from his previous dodgy team selections in Europe, why wasn't Manucho given a chance as the focal point up front which would certainly have helped Tevez. I'm not his biggest fan but I think he's getting a raw deal at the moment even if he isn't worth anything like 30m.

Berbatov made all the difference when he came on - the Celtic players couldn't pick him up and as a result our other forwards began to find space. In the end we could have won it, but the irony was that it was Berb that missed the late chance. Am I the only one who thinks that SAF works the wrong way round (he did it at Copenhagen too) that is, instead of putting on your stronger players, winning the match, then resting them, he rests them, gets into a losing position and then puts them on to work really hard to pull the chestnuts out of the fire?

Robbo - you're right of course. At least Saturday we'll see a real match.

Forster? I am not sure about he flaps more than KitKat. Rubbish distribution. I know I will be canned here because he is English but I am sorry, I am not impressed one bit.

We are not playing with the verve and discipline of last year. Not sure what the problem is, but something is not quite right. Personally, I thin its Fergie. He really doesnt know what tactics he needs to use. I think we are going to be exposed this season by SAF and his clueless assistants.

Foster defo a 7 Raphael also at least 7 Rio 5 he is slipping back tpo bad ways he could have blocked the shot for goal if he had moved quicker.

t&c – You were indeed right with the score but even you must have been a bit surprised at how easily United dominated. The second half was ridiculously one-sided for a Champions League match. They are a Championship side, no more. I don’t begrudge them their point though. They very nearly pulled off the improbable.
I could honestly see another Wolves, Man City or previous Celtic game rearing its ugly head until Flying Ryan came along. The result (not the performance) left me very flat.
I thought Nani could have been given a full 90 minutes, I saw little point in ditching him.
Tevez is still not quite at the races but I read this morning that he’s going out with some ‘footballer obsessed’ model and has ditched his wife who has flown home!
Perhaps that’s why Fergie has left him out recently.
That aside, he lacks a yard of pace and I’m beginning to question the value of having him and Rooney in the same side / squad?
It must have been a great experience to go to Celtic Park in that type of atmosphere.

Stupid ratings suggest that we were under the cosh and had no control over midfield which just wasn't the case.

Poorest player on the pitch was Tevez for me - his distribution was terrible although he didn't stop trying and Nani clearly missed Evra backing him up as on several occasions O'Shea left him stranded. As he did Ronaldo when he replace Da Silva. Fletcher (marginal man of the match over Ronaldo imo) did well keeping an excellent tempo and maintaining the urgency of the team (he is really emerging this season) as did Carrick at times - some good penetrating passes. Ronaldo was active as always and created plenty although his crosses never really reached their target. Rest of the defence solid but for the second game in a row Rio was left to cover the right back (maybe that's why he is unsettled T&C).

Giggs was OK but lightweight but he was quickest off the mark in scoring the rebound something that not enough players gambled on given the wet surface and the goal was important.

Overall tactics wise we Ronaldo and Nani should have swapped wings so that Ronaldo could cut in as noone was meeting his crosses and then there would be someone to meet Nani's crosses and in Da Silva someone to back him up. Rooney and Evra both provided a huge improvement coming on.

Marks Foster 6, Da Silva 6, Rio 7, Vidic 7, O'Shea 5, Fletcher 8, Carrick 7, Tevez 5, Ronaldo 8, Nani 6, Giggs 7 (for goal)
Rooney 6, Berbatov 5, Evra 7

You have to give Celtic credit for their fighting. That said if our decision-making and passing had been 10% sharper we would have coasted to victory.

Vidic was outstanding and MOTM but Rio as someone mentioned is a bit off his game. up field Ronaldo & Fletcher were the best and Tevez worked tirelessly to no avail. I cannot understand why you play him as a lone striker when he is small. Giggs was poor and it looked like his brain has slowed as much as his pace. O Shea was woeful. His only merit is that he is a versatile journeyman who can "do a job" but you see how the attack changes when Evra is on. Cannot really judge Foster after such injury problems but great finish as it was he was caught off his line too easily

bf 6
rds 5
rio6
vidic 8
opie3
ronaldo 7
fletch8**
carrick7
nani4
giggs3 (would have been 1)
tevez4


some poor performances last night

my "hero" fletch had another good game he is now in uncharted territory where he has put in a run of good performances long may it last.

Bobby Dazzler - your continued support for 'The Fletch' is very praiseworthy as it shows you do tell it as it is. Anymore of this and you'll be agreeing wholeheartedly with t&c on most issues and on a regular basis.
You'll be reading the Daily Telegraph next to get the match stat's!.
PS - I like your ultra critical scoring of players as it certainly puts your thoughts across!!!