CSKA Moscow 0 United 1: Player ratings

Stuart Mathieson

October 21, 2009

Nani battles for the ball with CSKA's Deividas Semberas

Van der Sar: Champions League nights do not come much quieter than this and the Dutchamn will be glad he had gloves just to keep out the cold if not for using 6

Neville: Up against a potentially lively 18-year-old in Schennikov but the veteran stood up to the test and even managed to force the winger into defending of his own before the Russian was taken off 7

Ferdinand: Inching his way back to his best form ahead of the visit to Anfield on Sunday and the England defender was rarely in trouble but just under an hour was enough for him 6

Vidic: Didn’t enjoy the best of birthday’s in Moscow where he used to ply his trade for Spartak. Even being reunited with the one-time solid triumvirate didn’t bring out the very best in the Serb 5

Fabio: Champions League debut for the young Brazilian and he had a tough ask coming face-to-face with Serbian Krasic but he handled the situation impressively 7

Valencia: Had one thunderous effort that rattled the crossbar and scored to build impressively on his goalscoring game against Bolton last Saturday 7

Scholes: Broke up a number of CSKA potential attacks and fortunately he managed to do it legally into the bargain 6

O’Shea: Another role for the versatile Irishman as the midfield protector in front of the back four and he did it to reasonable effect 6

Anderson: Considering United had three men in the central midfield area you would have expected a bit more from the South American but didn’t produce enough 5

Nani: The surface seemed to bring out the best in the Portuguese winger and he produced a series of eye-catching tricks that tormented his full back though Berbatov looked decidedly unimpressed with his service 7

Berbatov: CSKA boss Juande Ramos had the Bulgarian at Tottenham and described him as unstoppable. Sadly he didn’t get enough of the ball to prove the Spaniard right 6

Subs:

Brown (sub Ferdinand 57) One rusty moment 5

Owen (sub Scholes 70) Missed a half chance 5

Carrick (sub Fabio 88)

Welbeck, J Evans, Macheda, Kuszczak not used

CSKA Moscow: Akinfeev, Semberas, Ignashevich, A Berezutski, Dzagoev, Krasic, V Berezutski, Rahimic, Schennikov (Mamaev 62), Necid (Piliev 73)

Goals:
CSKA Moscow:
United: Valencia (86)

Bookings:
CSKA Moscow: None
United: Berbatov (54)

Battle of the Bosses:
Fergie’s set up was enough to frustrate former Spurs boss Juande Ramos

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark) On the ball 7

Agree with the ratings? Have your say.

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danny, WILMSLOW (21/10/2009 at 19:38)

Well it was a good win under the circumstances Valencia is just getting Better I did not rate Nani so high he has very poor judgement,Berbatov does not like playing as a lons striker Fabio impressed.
Vds gives me the shakes every time the ball goes near him.
Their keeper looks sharp and much better than our two put together.
We should all be happy the only thing I don,t like is all the stupid passing back!

Matthew Savage (21/10/2009 at 19:51)

Too many 6's; there should be more 4's and 5's. Absolute garbage.

Missing half a team and playing half way around the world against the best team in Russia on a plastic pitch, we should have won at least seven nil.

Sparky was the best ever (21/10/2009 at 20:06)

Astro turf gave artificial pitch surfaces a bad name. Now though, field turf is an excellent product. Apart from seeing rubber dust fly up when someone slides on it, it's like perfect grass.

Semso Muminovic (21/10/2009 at 20:22)

Sar 7 very good solid 7
Neville 6 solid
Ferdinand 7 solid
Vidic 7 or 4 very poor shadow of last season
Fabio 8 fantastic Krasic is not seen
O'Shea 2 lost during the entire football game antitalent
Scholes 6 time to retire
Anderson 9 unrivaled best Man Utd midfielder
Nani a fantastic 9
Valencia 8 great
Berbatov 5 consistently bad

Is It Me? (21/10/2009 at 20:38)

Just got back from the game and I was quite impressed with the team tonight!! MoM. The Norwegian refereeing team. Can we please clone them by ten and use them every week in the Prem. They were invisible and didn't make a bad decision all night! Well played,eat you hearts out English refs,watch and learn! My player of the match--- Nani.Why can't he do it all the time? Let downs,Ferdinand and Vidic-- I get the impression they don't like each other. VdS,exudes confidence.Berb? I do wish he would even look interested in his work! Nice to see Wes back! Fabio--little star.Anderson-- should be in the team all the time!

Red Culture (21/10/2009 at 20:45)

Nani 9, Anderson 8!

edinburgh red, edinburgh (21/10/2009 at 21:04)

A good professional performance,everyone played ok and no one really stood out, nani and fabio were probably the pick if I had to choose a mom,vidic was decidely shaky which was a worry.

Frank Old Trafford (21/10/2009 at 21:24)

Absolutely useless ratings showing a gross lack of knowledge about the game.

Macca, Cornwall (21/10/2009 at 21:29)

Nani and Valencia always a threat, just final ball from both sometimes dissapintning. suprised o'shea started and not carrick. Berb not a threat on his own up top, thins opened up a lot more when owen came on

Gilly, Belgium (21/10/2009 at 21:31)

Not too bad we won and got the points nice goal and set up from nani and berbatov for vlaencia to score ! well done guys next is LIVERPOOL

Balders!, W3106, Tier2 (21/10/2009 at 21:44)

Savage : judging by most of your comments, you obviously think you're funny?......at least there's one then !

Sparky : are you serious? that pitch is crap, not condusive to good football at all!

DUB RED, CLONDALKIN (21/10/2009 at 21:50)

Nani was terrible MEN watched a different game than i watched.

Balders!, W3106, Tier2 (21/10/2009 at 22:04)

I'm always loathe to comment too much, when i've not been at the game but feel compelled to tonight, for what was an excellent all-round performance, all-in. Although granted......they were gash !

There seemed to be two group of players out there for us though, imo. one group found it very easy, their class & technique was to the fore.
The other group struggled & or were poor.

Edwin, Nev, Rio, Scholes (all sheer class), Fab (great going forward, with a few youthful mistakes in defence), Valencia (Lee, i still like him) and fair play, NINI (without doubt, one of his best games - although he still managed to frustrate us & his teamates more than once! ;)..... were group one !

Vida (carrying an injury? - never seen him as poor, apart from against the dippers), Jos (really never thought i'd ever see him in CM again, & that performance was why. Imagine if Carrick had given the ball away as much aginst such a poor team?), Anders (touch, passing & stamina struggled again) & Berb (don't want to see Ronaldo impressions!) were the other group!

It was also good of SaF, to allow Ole to play for them up front, and then replace him with Sharpie ! ;)

Now for the big one? Anyone for the draw?

happy days!

Kurzalevski Ole (21/10/2009 at 22:16)

Nani deserves 0, it's better to play with 10 men than with him. We wont have the ball so often, but Nani is losing it in 9 out of 10 possessions!!! Berbatov also gets 0 for the first 70min and 7-8 for the last 20. He is not the type of player to be alone up front and we all saw how his game changed after Owen came in.
It was a crappy performance by all except of Valencia, VDS and Fabio and SAF's strategy was at least strange. But I expected such a thing cause the game in Liverpool is first priority.

Steve, Glossop (21/10/2009 at 22:43)

I thought we controlled the game well. They clearly had little threat but sent their best player on with 2mins to spare nice one. MoM has to go to Valencia he's doing the biz but have to say JOS did really well in midfield seriously would Carrick have done better? I'm still to see the wisdom of Owen's arrival ok just my opinion but Macheda can't be best pleased.

Sean , NYXMC (21/10/2009 at 22:49)

Matthew Savage - was that irony or stupidity?

Pretty good ratings - I'd have given Gary an 8, MoM for me - great to have him back.

Seamus, Vanisle,ex-Stretford (21/10/2009 at 22:53)

Good shifts from both Nani & Valenciai deduct 1 point from Valencia for lack of goal celebration. That needs work, no doubt Danny will want rid of him because of that. Vidic, rusty/wobbly/shaky, whatever.Rio, better, but not a lot to do really. Berba, lonely man for much of the game but still classy, well apart from that awful dive. Needs to work on that.VDS bored almost to sleep. Nev OK, Fabio terrific, Anderson, OK I thought. Scholes, no yellow or red card, so well done. JOS, not much wrong, again. Nice result.

tooth&claw, manchester (21/10/2009 at 22:54)

A very good, professional performance. Exactly what was required. No weak links. Everyone 7 or over. Nani and Berbatov ought to sort out their differences over a pint though. No MoM though. No-one excelled.

Sean , NYXMC (21/10/2009 at 22:56)

Semso Dumovic - JOS 2, Berba 5, Anderson 9!? Did you actual watch the game? O'Shea played very well. Anderson was average by his standards, and at least lasted 90 minutes, Berbatov kept getting into great positions, but received practically zero service (and still made the goal). And if by "consistently bad" you're talking about more than this game, I'm guessing you're a blue wind-up merchant.

Robbo, N2409, M16 (21/10/2009 at 22:59)

VDS: 7 - "Yeah, for sure." Comedy Dutch calmness from our Fabio-resuscitating hero.

GN-is-a-Red: 7 - Solid. Very solid. Solidness cubed, in fact.

Ab Fab: 7.5 - I DO love a scampering attacking full-back. Able deputy for Postal Patrice.

RF: 6 - Still wearing a corset. Can't run.

NV: 5 - Ropey.

AV: 6 - Like the post-match ready meals, seemed to have had his left foot destroyed by Russian customs officials.

PS: 7 - Cruised.

JOP: 7 - Steady job.

A-son-son-son: 7 - Hair extensions seemed coated with frost. Decent.

Nani: 7 - Balletic grace coupled with brain-dead delivery. But a threat. Which was good.

Berbasulk: 4 - Really poor. Given the lack of service, it wasn't easy, but all he did was walk and moan.

Subs: 6 - Whatever.

Good win, boring game. CSKA were shocking.

Alias Smith, over the moon (21/10/2009 at 23:07)

Seamus, any idea why it is that Valencia doesn't celebrate his goals?

Terrific performance tonight, mostly good performances (especially Neville, Nani & Valencia). I do hope Torres is not fit for the weekend or Vidic could be in for another very torrid time.

MoM Carrick, in a Steve Bruce stylie. Didn't put a foot wrong.

charbel (21/10/2009 at 23:28)

I was very impressed with Nani. I feel confident when he gets the ball because he has immaculate control, probably the best at the club at making the ball stick to his feet. He is also adept at winning it back because he's so quick, and he often draws a couple of defenders towards him.

Now, a lot of United fans have simply written him off and will slag him at every opportunity (probably because they're muppets who do not know better). The reason? Apparently he has no end product. Well, if you expect Nani to produce 'end product' every time he received the ball then United should score 18 goals every game, because, apparently, that's how much most teams do when possessing a player with end product.

Tonight Nani was the best player on the pitch. He was the reason we scored. I know it bugs a lot of muppets here, but I don't mind because I know that they're muppets.

charbel (21/10/2009 at 23:33)

To Danny of the wilmslows:

You've been figured out lad. You know what your problem is? You only like players who are not in United's first team. That's why you're always championing the merits of every reserve player that you read about.

Now you think Akifyeev should be our goalie, huh? Did you not see his clumsiness when dealing with Scholes' shot, or his complete miss of that high lofted ball in the first half? Straight from the Ben Foster school of goalkeeping. Take some time off, say 6 or 7 years, until you hit your twenties, then come back and speak some sense.

charbel (21/10/2009 at 23:37)

Nani and Valencia were our best 2 performers. They gave the CSKA fullbacks nightmares. Had the same happened to our fullbacks, we'd be begging Fergie to purchase the duo. Luckily, they already play for us.

I can't think of a single winger in the Premier League who gives fullback such a roasting. SFortunately, we've got one on each flank.

And now they're both scoring.

What's that, 10 wins in 11 games now? I'm glad I'm a United fan, and a happily satisfied one at that.

Dublinhead, Dublin and New York (22/10/2009 at 03:12)

It was a very poor game overall. Valencia and Nani both looked OK overall - they combined very well for the goal although Berba's clever flick (with his head) was the key. He is such a clever player and he knows how to play a perfectly weighted pass or flick. I think Berbatov is a genius that is starting to revel in his role as United's second talisman. It's amazing how Giggs, Berbatov and Rooney have all improved now that the showman has moved on. I loved Ronaldo but half of our players were living in his shadows. Fabio also looked good - him and his brother seem unfazed by any occasion.

Poor little Mickey Owen - he had what The Yanks call "a swing and a miss" from a perfectly weighted cross ten minutes from time. It looks like he can do nothing right, right now. Maybe he's trying to hard - but he's not looking like becoming the Michael Owen of old.

Come on The Pooh on Sunday! They will be well up for this game and we may feel the backlash.

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