VIEW: United vs Marseille. 2-1

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 Maidstone United!!) has been deserved. And although there were a couple of moments were the latest make-shift central defensive partnership of Brown and Smalling lacked coherence, he continues to add to his fan base and list of converters.

Brown 6. His biggest contribution of the night was undoubtedly the goal he scored, for Marseille, that made the final 10 minutes nervy as f**k. A couple of typically pounding Wesley Brown tackles did however remind us - if only for fleeting moments - why we will always love him.

Evra 6. A few darting runs up the wing and you even saw him cut inside a few times, but he was given a few problems by Fanni and Valbuena when he came on. Still, the Marseille threat was never too hot for Pat to handle.

Nani 6. Rushed back from the Carragher shanking a game too early resulted in arguably his worst performance of the season. Sloppy on the ball and slow off. It may sound like I'm being overly harsh, but surely that is only a credit to how far our now most influential player has come in the last 12 months. Lets hope this hurried return from injury won't have the same adverse affect as it did on Wazza after the Bayern game last season.

Carrick 5. Did he even play? Seriously?? The full 90 minutes you say?! Well, I never. A quiet display is what I'm getting at, in case my unfunny sarcasm didn't quite hit home. And this is the man, remember we will most probably have to rely on to fill in defence. Gulp.

Scholes 7. Not his best game, but the post-modern holding midfielder (he used to partner Le Roi up front remember) was once again solid. However his greatest asset - his godlike passing - was massively surpassed by the lad playing slightly in front of him.

Giggs 8. No, not Giggsy. Who was always, just incredible - darting runs and causing their full-backs problems when it was needed. Great work and vision for the opener as well as directly assisting the winner.

Rooney 9. What an unbelievable performance by Rooney. His passing was beautiful, visionary (reward) and often ridiculous, yet it almost always reached the target no matter how unrealistic it seemed. So where DID he play? As an attacking midfielder, partnering Scholesy? Or just off the centre-forward, Chico? Wherever he found himself during the game, he was just as affective on the ball as he was off it - matching Chicharito's movement and energy - and admitted after the stunning that he rather enjoyed himself. I'm sure he did!

Hernandez 8. Two great finishes to again enhance his reputation as a natural born goalscorer and further confirm his signing - as well as Ferguson's decision to pick him over the prolific Berbatov - as a stroke of genius. Rooney and Chico had a lot of fun playing together last night. Here's hoping they continue their on-field bromance in the league, starting with Bolton at home on Staurday.

Sub:

Valencia 7. A special mention to our almost forgotten bullet on the wings, who put the game to rest when he came on; settling things with his reverse pass to Giggs, who slotted into the path of Hernandez for the second. In the two appearances he has made after coming back from injury you can tell that he's lost a yard or two of pace, and his final ball, which were annoyingly near-perfected before hobbling off six months ago, have gone back to the unpredictable level they were when he first joined United. Still, a more convincing display on Wednesday compared to his cameo against Arsenal in the Cup can certainly re-instil us with hope as the title race comes into fruition...and a shocking 11 members of our squad are outr injured.