United's performance as seen by a Chelsea fan

Nani Nana

by Loz, The Shed End

The first half provided 45 minutes of attrition with United seemingly following match orders perfectly. The way I saw it your intention was to crowd your own half and nullify our midfield and look to hit us on the break as and when you won possession or we gifted it to you.

We, on the other hand, seemed comfortable in possession until we were about 35 yards from your goal and then either played a loose pass (thus allowing you to break) or opted for the ball over the top toward Drogba who was understandably being crowded. Where we failed was to make better use of Deco and too often he was omitted from the game by the ball being played over the top of him.

As for you guys in the first half I felt that when you did break you also lacked quality in the final third of the pitch and loose passes cost you what could have been at least a couple of very good chances.

Key men for you in the first half were Fletcher and Rooney both who worked like dogs and key for us was Anelka and Ivanovic. As for the other 18 players I didn?t think any of them were particularly good or poor ? they all played a little like you would expect if you were watching Everton play Villa ? competent but lacking spark.

In the first half of the second half I though you raised your game quite considerably whereas we just seemed to carry on coasting. Rooney in particular started to give us a lot to be worried about but unfortunately for you, and fortunately for us, I though he was getting little support from the likes of Valencia and Anderson who disappeared in the second half.

Then we had the big talking points and probably where there will be disagreement. Our goal shouldn?t have been a goal. It wasn?t a free kick in the first place and Drogba did foul Brown. However either side of that the ref had a mental melt down. Evans should have got two red cards today, not one yellow. The challenge on Drogba (God knows what Drogba was booked for) was a cowardly act and should be dealt with retrospectively and his kick through the back of Carvalho was an act of pure petulance and worthy of a straight red.

Overall I would admit that United deserved a point but am obviously glad you didn?t get it.

As for scoring your players rather than running through all of them I will make it easy by saying that I thought the majority of your players were pretty average (same with ours) and only a few deserved anything other than a 6 out of 10.

Those exceptions are:

Rooney your clear MOTM and I award him an 8

Fletcher your best player in the first half, faded a bit in the second but still your best midfielder 7

Valencia ineffective throughout the game and a pretty unpleasant lunge on Frank at the end 5

Anderson really did very little throughout. 5

Evans Actually did OK fir the first hour or so but those two challenges were very poor and the one on Drogba especially. I know some of your lot probably think 'good on you Johnny' but if the ref had done his job properly you would have been down to 10 men when the score was 0-0 and you may not have been so happy with him then. he gets a 3 which is also the number of games he should be banned for.

To put my scores into some sort of perspective it is worth saying that I would award similar scores to our players with the ones getting something other than a 6 being

Ivanovic our clear MOTM in my opinion - 9

Anelka the only player in our midfield and strikers who I felt played intelligently throughout and gave your backline problems 8

Drogba probably his poorest performance for us this season. 5

Deco - I think he suffered a bit from the way the ball was going over his head however when he did on the ball his distribution was nowhere near the standard we expect - 4

SiYuan

Anderson and Ivanovic score's :S


Otherwise pretty good.

Adzzz

Ivanovic 9, wtf.

MrMarcello

So no comment about Ivanovic's lunge on Giggs?

AlwaysRedwood

I guess he missed the part where Drogba came in late on Evans - yellow card.

Don't know how he gives Anderson a 5. He was terrific.

Don't know where the second red for Evans comes from, but they don't give out two, so don't be greedy.

Had Rooney not been called for offsides, this is an entirely different game.

mjs020294

Ivanovic was the overall MoTM today. He looked class at RB IMO.

Dobba

Anderson 5? Fucking hell

Nani Nana

Ivanovic is actually their MOTM by quite a distance. I completely agreed as he has been defensively neat and brought a few interesting options forward, notably that free-kick wasted by Drogba.

Cech [ 0 ] [0.00%]
A Cole [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Terry [ 5 ] [17.86%]
Carvalho [ 2 ] [7.14%]
Ivanovic [ 16 ] [57.14%]
Essien [ 2 ] [7.14%]
Ballack [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Lampard [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Drogba [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Deco [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Anelka [ 3 ] [10.71%]
J Cole [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Alex [ 0 ] [0.00%]

One should underline to better understand Ivanovic's rating that until recently he used to be Chelsea's weak link, played in a position he wasn't familiar with (he is a centre-back) but lately he started going forward well and improving at a very high rate.

Last season he seldom crossed the line whilst now he does seem to run forward as a natural right-back. He nearly scored a brace in their last game and played extremely well in the one before, having been voted their MOTM for both games. Hence I guess the Chelsea fans are rather underlining his massive improvement than a particularly good performance tonight.

Although, I thought, he handled Giggs quite well and really nullified our impact on the left wing.

phelans shorts

what about fat franks 5 lunges on valencia?

datura

That their best player was their right back shows a lot about how the game went.

Cold_Boy

He was decent nothing more.

Whom did he really defend against tbh?

Raven Blade

Well you would expect some obvious bias from a Chelsea perspective. They got away with it today and they know who dominated the majority of the match.

green demon

[quote-Chlesea Fan]Evans should have got two red cards today[/quote]

Evans got a yellow when trying to win the ball back and Carvalho (I think) did some theatrics. Ref gave both yellows and was right. The incident with Drogba, hard to judge who fouled who but if the ref had given the decision to Drogba then it would have been worthy of another yellow.

However: 78 minutes (just after the goal) Chelsea no. 10 fouled Fletcher, then swung out a boot at him and caught him (the sort of thing Sky were going mad when Ronaldo or Rooney did it last year) and then he cuffed him hard on the back of the head. This happened right in front of the referee. This was clearly at least one red card, if not two.

TheReligion

Silly ratings from a bias idiot

erickingcantona

this actually seems rather fair.

erickingcantona

but anderson was a beast, as were rooney and fletch.

Brwned

Sky gave him a 5 as well.

No idea why.

They gave Ivanovic a 6, I thought that was about right.

Alex

You should change the thread title to "United's performance as seen by a moron"

Alex

Anderson was a 7 or 8, Ivanovic was pretty good as well 7 or so

TheReligion

Some idiots on here. Seems fair giving Anderson a 5 and Evans a 3?

Get a grip

Count Duckula

Valencia offered very little in an attacking sense, but he was deserving of a better score than that because he nullified Cole.

But seriously, Ivanovic?

RonaldoVII

Ignore the decisions then.

-Rooney wasn't offside in the opening minutes.
-Terry clearly fouls Valencia on the edge of the 6 yard box.
-Goalscoring opportunity above, Terry should walk.
-Wasn't a free kick against Fletcher. Clearly got the ball before Cashley jumped up in the air.
-Drogba fouled Brown, and was also offside, though didn't touch the ball.
-Clear handball from Lampard in stoppage time.
-No added time for Alex coming on.

Dobba

-Waiting for United to get the ball before stopping play for injured player
-Very same situation later in game don't stop play when Chelsea are attacking

Tumbling-Dice

This.

Who is this prat ?

Vinay

Actually what's more pissing is the fact that the only reason Valencia lost the ball to Lampard was thanks to Lampard holding on to him in the initial stages of that run of Valencia's. That was a foul which was never given and Valencia can easily be understood to be out of himself when Lampard gets the ball off him and whence, the lunge... Referee to be blamed 100% there!

Dobba

Close, but 'as seen' still implies they watched the game.

vuc

Ivanovic was fantastic, I don't care how many people see this as bias they can fuck off.

Compare his performance in the community shield (where Evra raped him) at RB to today.. Nothing got past him, he was an outlet going forward too, threatened with crosses, and when Carvalho bombed forward he was able to fill in seamlessly for him at CB. Not too mention how many headers and clearances he made.

vuc

This is the key point. He used to bomb forward so much more, he was visibly less confident at Chelsea to do this: Lately though that has gone, and he has been providing a real outlet and crossing well into the box, not too mention shooting more.

What a difference a run of games makes to a player.

golden_blunder

sorry Nani Nana but if thats the guy you're trying to get me to promote, you can jog on

fishfingers15

Are you sure that Loz isn't you Nana?

vuc

I saw him get the ball first, and Ivanovic is not a dirty player. Genuinely would not injure a player, least of all someone like Giggs.

AttackingFlair

He had his studs in Giggs' bloody leg. He touched the ball but barely.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

Rating Anderson 5 is beyond laughable.

Mockney

I think he's rather fair regarding their goal and the second half (apart from Anderson)....Can't understand why he thought Anderson was 5 obviously as he was immense throughout and destroyed their midfield...I also thought Rooney was poor first half.

Other than that, he's not that bad. Some of you really need to have a cup of tea and calm down a bit

gaffs

I thought Ivanovic was very impressive. Can see why he is keeping out Bosingwa.

Fair review of the game, though Anderson was better than a 5. But i didnt think he was outstanding, Fletch was far better.

vuc

What do you want here? He made contact with the ball first, whether or not he touched it barely is irrelevant. Secondly, he is not a dirty player, his only intention was to play the ball. Not too mention he did get booked.

AttackingFlair

Bosingwa is injured?

He shouldn't have his studs showing that high up and also following through maybe? Not saying he is dirty in general but I think he deserved the card today.

Alex

Ok Branislav.....whatever you have to tell yourself

EdWeatherall

That my friend is the biggest load of bollocks, it's a very common misconception that winning the ball is a 'get out of jail free'

Neville won the ball against Barnsley, surely what he did next is ok then??


He was alright today, nothing more, made to look a lot better as United had decided to allow him the space as they didn't see him as a threat, they wanted Giggs to tuck in and tighten up the space for Chelsea's midfield, whereas Valencia was given the role of staying with Cole

They could easily have allowed Giggs to do similar with Ivanovic, but then there would have been a man free in midfield, which would have had Rooney coming deeper than you would have wanted, and giving Terry and Carvahlo an wasy ride

vuc

Understandable. I didn't say anything about the yellow card. Merely stated he played the ball first.