Ratings: Manchester United 3 – 0 West Ham
Foster – 7 He was only called into action on a couple of occasions, but dealt with everything that came his way. Kicking is still suspect.
Neville – 7 One of his better performances recently. West Ham’s reluctance to attack left Neville free to get forward and he did, to good effect.
Brown – 7 Nothing to trouble him.
Vidic – 7 Dominant aerially, but like Brown was never really troubled.
Evra – 6 Still looks tired and didn’t contribute an awful lot going forward, but put in some good tackles to keep West Ham quiet down his flank.
Valencia – 8 A constant threat down the right wing. His pace was too much for the poor West Ham defence and he set up both of Rooney’s goals.
Gibson – 7 Threatened to open the scoring on several occasions in the first half and passed the ball well. Drifted out of the game towards the end.
Scholes – 7 It was all too easy for him. He was given so much time on the ball that he was able to dictate the tempo of the game.
Anderson – 5 Subbed of early on with an injury. Didn’t look good.
Berbatov – 7 Involved in a lot of the build up play and takes a huge slice of credit for both of Rooney’s goals. He fed Valencia who in turn fed Rooney.
Rooney – 9 Man of the match. He’s making this goalscoring lark look easy. Another two headed goals from the lad and a dominating display to match.
Subs:
Park – 7 Came on to good effect for the injured Anderson. Kept possession well and put in some good tackles to win it back.
Owen – 6 Scored within moments of coming on. Not much else to report.
Diouf – 5 No impact.
February 25th, 2010
Like the line on Owen!!! “6 Scored within moments of coming on. Not much else to report.”
You wouldn’t be a little biased there considering the recent article on him would you! If we’ve got a sub who can score with virtually his first touch and he cost you nothing in transfer fees surely he’s worth having! Especially with his scoring history.
February 25th, 2010
I didn’t mean it in a negative way Bill, I just meant there was literally nothing else to report as he wasn’t involved apart from the goal.
I’m happy he came on and scored and if he can do that consistently then he’ll have proven me wrong. In cases like this I’m more than happy to be proven wrong because it means he’s scoring goals for us.
I’m not an Owen hater by any means, I just think for a variety of reasons he wasn’t the signing we needed.
I do say nice things about him sometimes.
http://www.strettyender.com/owen-has-no-chance-competing-with-rooney
February 26th, 2010
Thanks for the reply. I think Owen has fallen foul of Fergie’s 4-5-1 preference for formation. Owen has a role to play in cup matches, mainly home premiership games and off the bench in most games. I’d rather have him than most other subs when looking to change a game. I agree that he hasn’t been prolific, but as you say he’s never going to compete with the form player in world football in Rooney.