Still Following the Trawler

Player Ratings vs. Marseille. 15th March 2011 Van der sar 7 . Nowhere near as influential or important as he was against Arsenal at the weekend, simply because he didn't need to be. For all of Marseille's impressive resilience to see them needing only a goal in the final 10 minutes to secure their place in the Quarter Finals, they only managed 5 shots on target in total and zero after they scored. O'Shea 6 . He played a sturdy 35 minutes before his injury. More pressingly however was the fact his replacement at right-back - Rafael - pulled up with the exact same injury on 69 minutes. Two right-backs and two possibly detrimental hamstring injuries (Rafael has already been reported to be out for a month ) in the same match. Seriously, what the f**k? Smalling 7 . The hype and astonishment surrounding Smalling's rise up the ranks (for those who miss the 47,000 times a game the commentators mention it, it was exactly three years ago when he was playing for Ma...

After a bore draw in France - where highlights included Chris Smalling playing yet another blinder in the centre of our defence and an overly patriotic Marseille crowd booing Patrice Evra (their left-back has NO idea what he's got coming when he steps foot on the Old Trafford turf...) - I thought I'd leave the boring task of reliving the match to the professionals who have no excuse because they get paid for it... Manchester United fail to break through Marseille's baracade . Kevin McCarra, the Guardian Manchester United are so adept on the European stage that a goalless draw seemed of little note despite the fact that it puts the visitors well on the way to victory in this Champions League tie. Supporters are practised in foreseeing doom and it is true that an away goal is normally seen as a key ambition, but Marseille gave no indication of the incisiveness needed to score at Old Trafford. ...Sir Alex Ferguson was a little subdued afterwards. That reflected th...