keep saying it, thank god for ronaldo last year.the rest of midfield are powderpuff when it comes t scoring and hardly put in a shot in most games.why has scholes who had 1 of the best shots in football stopped even having a pop,it will cost us

vds a day off.
gn 7
nv 7
je 7
opie 7
ronaldo 7
invisible man why wont he shoot 4

andersen 4
fletch 7
tevez 4
bebratov6

That final cross to Berba saved Tevez from being a 4. He was full of energy, but largely inept. I agree that Evans and Vidic were solid. Giggs showed some good flashes.

Agree with the ratings, although I thought Vidic deserved 8.

Impressive that we keep on nickin three points, but penetration is disappointing. On the bright side Ronaldo is getting better. We still need Rooney

The main thing is we won Ronaldo met a good keeper today.We did not really play well,Carrick looks to be in pemanent slumber.
I think Palcios will be playing in the next game.
I was glad to see Giggs come on.

We looked livelier when Giggs & Scholes came on. Bolton is always tough but looking at the table, all is right with the world now!!

Ratings about right, except i'd give Berba a 7 and Carrick a 5. I think Tevez barely deserves his 6 as he was poor throughout but he did produce the goods at the death to set up Berba

Carrick was poor - he's a weak character and when the going is tough for Utd he rearely stands up to be counted. Good when everythings working fine.
Anderson is a bit of a worry. He did some good things and some stupid things. He has no consistency, and is obviously not playing aswell as last yr.
Fletch put in a decent shift.

My worry this season is that without Hargreaves we have no one in central midfield who will offer any leadership when we're struggling. Some people dont like Hargeaves as a player, i do, but his attitude and application cant be questioned. As it is, no-one will say "hey, give me the ball, i'll make something happen, i'll be the man". What we have is players who will just get it and get rid as quickly as they can, they dont want to take on the responsibility. Thats why i think in tight games we see so much sideways and backways passing.
A lack of balls from our central men. And creativity. Some of the more blindly biased fans waffle on about Carricks wonderful passing - rubbish. Its good when he has time and space and everything is rosey. When pressured, as against Bolton today and Wigan during the week, he struggles and just passes the buck. And when faced with these teams, and the likes of Sunderland who came to defend he hasnt got the guile either. But he's not alone. No one has shown this season that they do either. Too many players are just hoping Ron or Rooney will win it for us, and theyre content to coast along until that happens

The midfield lineup sucks! You can't play Fletcher with Ronaldo, Anderson and Carrick. We need a legitimate winger with Anderson (who needs to play every game), Carrick and Ronaldo. If fletcher needs to play on the team so those photo's don't go public....put him on after we have a two goal lead.

Fergie needs an assistant. He hasn't a clue!!! Quieroz has to be replaced with somebody of equal standard, and Phealan is not it. Not being able to cut through teams has been a feature of the season.

Why play with Fletcher on the right and Ronaldo on the left when we have an international left winger Tosic not even on the bench?

Another game where we were largely inept in midfield, Ronaldo losing confidence more and more (should play against Derby)

How many times do we have to say "Never mind we got the three points" that's a continuing theme this season, winning poorly.

This was the second worse display of the season and all the ratings have to be to high!

The fact we are top is amazing!

danny Wilmslow, what a plonker!

don't know what Carrick has to do to impress some of you on here. we've got the classiest player this country has seen since Glenn Hoddle and half of you don't appreciate him. one crossfield pass in particular today had the commentators purring.

the same goes for Berba, btw.

we"re playing much better with scholesy in squad, he is by far our best midfielder...fletcher improved a lot but still he is far from scholesy, carrick is true class but he isn t scholesy either...while anderson obviusly had 1 good game and 20 bad games... can t w8 for rooney come back...we are much better with him in squad,evra,wes and rio also will help a lot when they come back, even i think evans and o shea did well...also we need hargo back for midfield,he carrick and scholesy are our best midfielders for me,also hargo can play on right full back or wing because of his good crossing

Having seen the goal several times again this morning how well did Tevez do to hold off those two ogres( Bolton Doormen), keep his balance and then his nerve to produce the perfect ball into the six yard box?
Now that is what you call an assist. He deserves a 6 just for that 'match winning' piece of play.

Ronaldo is not so selfish as he used to be but he must improve his final past. Tevez is more accurate in short passes and walls (like any arsenal player) . We are missing Evra .

Keithmat, if you really want to follow United, take time to listen to the manager press conference every Friday. Hence you will know more about the squad. Tosic is not match fit yet.
I ve been a big fan of Carrick but I ve to say that he has been loosing too many 50/50 challenges.However my biggest disappointment is Anderson who really looks a shadow of the player of last season. He insists too much into his dreamland passing instead of working the opposition especially at the beginning of the game.We lost possession too easily in the 1st half.If we win the lague it ll be down to the defence but if we loose it it ll be down to the forward.The midfield will never gives us a 10/10 performance which is something we expect from the 2 other parts of the team.

VDS has nothing much to do the whole game, saved well in the first half to keep Man U in the game.

I felt the defense played alright, though Neville and O'Shea and not moving up as much as Rafael (or Brown) and Evra do when they play. The balls played into the penalty area are also disappointing from these two.

Ronaldo shows flashes of his best, at least he is hitting the target with his free kicks, Anderson is like a lost sheep, he really need games to sharpen up. Carrick is alright, he is never the combative 16 we had, but his delivery isnt exactly poor like some of you have said.

As for Fletcher, he is the pet of Fergie (anyone remember Lee Sharpe?), why is he being deployed time and again when we know he is useless? Cant we play Park, Nani instead? Initially I thought Fergie was play 4-3-3! He cant run, cant beat defenders and cant cross!

Berbatov finally repaid his fee? NOT! He is just being lucky to be at the right place at the right time. His initial miss is glaring, didnt anyone notice? The goalkeeper would have saved his goal if he has not been wrong footed!

Tevez once again needs to prove to us why he is worth the rumoured 32millions pounds. He is here there everywhere but no significant contributions besides the assist.

In all, it was a boring game, not the typical Man U games I would like to watch. Below par performance is what I would say, and we are lucky to get the 3 points. Then again, to be fair to the team, considering we have many injuries and played many games after the long trip to Japan, it is a acceptable, for the time being that is.

As - couldnt agree more. It will be the midfield that will determine if Utd remain champions.

The goal came after Giggs ran at the defence. The first time in the game (89th min).

What would United's attack look like with a driving pacy midfielder?

AS - seems like we all agree the problem is in midfield - even a 'not match fit' Tosic could hardly have played worse than the ones on the park. I am a big supporter of Carrick and he did hit a couple of nice passes but unfortunately he along with the others was negative almost the whole game. A driving creative midfield player we do not have this year - except for one great performance from Giggs.

Carrick was excellent. Anybody who thinks otherwise doesn't understand or appreciate what his holding role is. SAF will have been pleased w/ him certainly. Anderson though really appears to have gone backward this year. Mentally he just doesn't seem to be into things. And unless Nani has a problem, it is a damning verdict on him that he didn't get the nod over Fletcher playing out of position. W/ Scholes, Carrick, and Hargreaves all missing time this year, for Anderson not to have had a better go at claiming a regular spot speaks volumes.

The problem with the likes of Anderson and Nani is they are in and out of the side. Believe me it is hard to come into any side and do ell when you don't play regulary. Last year Anderson played a lot of games and he was a revelation. Suddenly, he cannot get a game and when he did it is after a long time without kicking a ball.

I dont think we have a poor midfield but a midfield who will never have a season as a group above 7/10 as we tend to see with the defence(last 3 seasons) and the attack (previous 2 seasons).I dont remember us winning lots of games because of the midfields in previous seasons.Now that the attack is struggling we need players like Anderson and Carrick (actually playing around 6/10) to step up their games.
Keithmat, Fergie is the man we trust to make the right decision especially on a player we ve never seen played.Fergie is not only thinking short term but long term as well.He said himself that he played Vida too early (which could have ruined his career at United) and it does not want to make the same mistake.Tosic time will come.I think he kept Park for Tuesday as we really need our best team out there to makse sure we re in the final especially as we re struggling to score a goal let alone 2.

Well done the players and the manager. OK, not our greatest performance but after Liverpool drew with Stoke they knew three wins would take us top of the league and they've delivered.

exoticEd, "As for Fletcher, ...He cant run, cant beat defenders and cant cross!"

And yet he (with Vidic) is our best player this season. Maybe it's time to reconsider your prejudices, like the rest of the United fans.

keithmat, hardly anyone agrees it's the midfield. It's the forward line (and maybe the wide positions). No problems in midfield.