Very little to say about last night’s win against Aston Villa. But nonetheless Manchester United progress to the next round of the FA Cup. Let’s have a look at how our players performed.
David De Gea – 5
Couple of regulations saves, bottled it for the disallowed goal and distribution as errant as a pre-Christmas Amazon courier. Caused united all sorts of problems and could have been made to pay by a better team.
Diogo Dalot – 5
Some early signs of promise, uses the same Sat Nav as his mate in net only less accurate. Defensive liability, gave it away/fired hospital balls into midfield, good effort and a bit of aggression to get booked. Terrible dribbling.
Luke Shaw – 5.5
A little better & showed enough for us to remember he is a quality player, a long way from his best, slung in some crosses but lost possession a lot.
Victor Lindelof – 6
Couple of nervous moments & clattered into the post. Solid in the main & looked reasonably steady with Varane – Overworked due to shocking distribution all around him.
Raphael Varane – 7
A real diamond in the rough situation. But somehow retained his integrity, reduced to launching it long after a a few good moments.
Scott McTominay – 7
Another decent goal and all round reasonable performance. Solid in his duels, scored and had a couple of shots on target. If the rest of the team had his attitude we might have half a chance. Chance of what Christ knows but a chance nonetheless.
Fred – 6.5
I can only assume they call him Pastor Fred because you’re guaranteed to say “Jesus Christ” Fred whenever you watch him play. From the ridiculous to sublime and back again within 30 seconds. Great assist and a decent display in a struggling side.
Marcus Rashford – 4.5
Something looks amiss, whether it’s confidence or injury. He looks lethargic off the ball, no pace in his dribbling and errant passing. He looked better off the right and had one pass into Greenwood that didn’t quite hit its mark. Must do better.
Mason Greenwood – 6
Plenty of shots on target but none of them really troubled Martinez, decent pass success rate but seemed to hang back when the space was in front of him – suffered from lack of support as did the attack generally.
Bruno Fernandes – 5
Worked hard and thundered into the odd tackle, very little came off but attitude was decent.
Edinson Cavani – 5
One shot on target, linked play fairly well but didn’t get much service. Hair fluttered in the wind in a manner that would sell all the shampoo in the world as he chased lost causes.
Donny Van De Beek – 5
Very little impact at first, looked a little boy lost but generally grew into the game. Suffered as his team mates did from poor slow distribution from deep.
Anthony Elanga – 5
Brightest player on the pitch, great energy and might have had an impact if he had a few more minutes.
Jesse Lingard – 5
Worked hard and was generally positive but his time at the club is surely up.
Ralf Rangnick – 5
Not having the impact, he would have hoped, generally looked good at spells but then so is Harry Potter and he’s not United manager. The counter attack is not something he favours and he needs to learn to like it because that’s what Manchester United is built on.
Better shape overall even if the control he longs for was missing for the vast majority of the game – I’d be happy if we controlled the odd pass never mind the match.
At least he binned that ridiculous formation! System seemed to be similar to the Old Trafford pies. Soggy at the back, very little in the middle and flaky up front, capable of raising a smile on a good day.