Oct 14
Manchester United Player Ratings: The Attack
Now that the international break is well underway, it could be a fair enough time to look back at the season so far and reflect on the team’s performance. Well, it wasn’t necessarily electrifying to start with, but things have been picking up and, hopefully, we’ll continue in the same vein as we left off against Wigan.
So let’s look at our players — those who have played in the team — one by one.
The Attack
Wayne Rooney
He has taken a while to get into his groove, thanks to an ill-timed foot injury that kept him out for a month. But now, he seems to be slowly picking up pace and begun scoring goals. It is still too early to say much about his form - he is working his sock off, as usual - but if his hunger and recent form is anything to go by, there is a high chance that we may be seeing the best of Rooney this season. Rating: 6.5/10
Louis Saha
I wouldn’t have even talked about him, but for his crucial goals. His injury situation is now stuff of legend and songs have been written in recognition of the famous Mr. Glass. However, when he is on the pitch, he does play intelligently and we seemed to miss him in the early stages of the season. A goal against Sunderland was extremely crucial while the penalty against Chelsea came when victory was all but sealed. Of course, now he has relapsed into his favourite place, the club’s rehabilitation centre. Rating:6/10
Carlos Tevez
Took time to adapt himself at Old Trafford. Not so much the country as much as his role in the side. His work rate was undoubted and he seems like a confidence player, just like he was at West Ham — he needs the first goal to start rolling on. That’s what happened after the diving header against Chelsea. His performances were only upwardly mobile after that and was topped off by the goal against Wigan. Looks extremely promising. Rating: 7.5/10
Luis Nani
Was never expected to play a significant role this season. This came from the gaffer himself. But with suspensions and injuries, he was promptly pressed into action. He has his faults — seems indecisive with the ball at his feet, gives the ball away too often. But all that can be excused because he is still learning his ropes. Aside all that he’s still done a very good job considering the environment he’s had to adopt to and he is an excellent crosser of the ball. That speaks for his three assists so far already. Not to forget the screamer against Tottenham. Another good young prospect from the assembly line of Sporting Lisbon. Rating: 6.5/10
Cristiano Ronaldo
Was suspended for three games after an ill-advised headbutt which made our performances suffer in part. He has been a key component of our attack, without doubt. So we did miss him quite a bit. He took his time to get back to his form of last season and with four goals in five games he looks on course to make a fool out of Drogba’s earlier assessment. Rating: 7/10
Ryan Giggs
Has been criticized for his form throughout this season. While his pace might be deserting him, he has given the ball away on numerous occasions, something you don’t expect him to do with alarming regularity. He was dropped from the starting line-up for the Roma game and that seemed to work for him as the game against Wigan was his best of the season. It’s worth noting that his performance also coincided with United’s best performance of the season. Rating:6/10
As one would have noted, I have been very conservative with the ratings. That is because we haven’t been particularly great going forward and that reflects on our goal tally. Most of you might agree that it has been the defence that have been our saving grace this season, and I will get to that, and the midfield in subsequent posts over the week. Keep watching this space.
PS: Don’t ask why I haven’t included Anderson. He is a central midfielder, according to me. I will get to him when I discuss the midfield.
Related items from Red Rants:- Manchester United Player Ratings: The Midfield
- Manchester United Half Time Report: The Attack
- Manchester United Player Ratings: The Defence
- Man Utd v Barcelona: Preview
- Manchester United throw the last game of the season
Tags: Manchester United Players · Opinions/Columns
October 14th, 2007 at 15:33
koolio- changing the topic a bit, its been reported that rafa is lining up a january bid for alves, if he gets alves it scares me to think what alves and torres together can do, that might just be a better partnership than our beloved rooney and tevez pairing, will it go through? and if it does will he make the impact in england that he has made in holland? p.s sorry in advance if the comments have nothing to do with the article redranter.
October 14th, 2007 at 15:50
dont think alvez is all that good….if u look at the goals
hes scored- vast majority are shite! rooney and tevez/ saha
are still in a different league
October 14th, 2007 at 16:07
i dont care how he scores them aslong as long as he scores.
October 14th, 2007 at 16:23
er what! alves + Torres scared u? probably Drogba and Sheva combination once sound like more scary…
October 14th, 2007 at 18:25
RR, anderdon is a central midfielder but he is a CAM an attacking midfielder, Kaka is also a midfielder and if someone was doing this kind of thing for A.C the Kaka would definately be included. He showed his great attacking potential in the time ha got in the roma match, and if u ask me giggs is no longer part of our attacking line up but plays in the normall LM role.
October 14th, 2007 at 18:38
[Ollie]
I guess you get my point, I wanted to include wingers as attackers and central mids on the midfield list. They are just technicalities and I wanted to break them down into parts. So thats why I put Anderson in the midfield. He is more in the Scholes mould anyway.
October 14th, 2007 at 19:06
I think you sat on the fence a bit with those scores.
Saha’s was *very* generous, as was Giggs’s.
October 14th, 2007 at 19:21
Ah Sa
7 goals in 2 games is impressive and then some, and torres is in a hot form that can be better, sheva cant score in the premier league to save his, his childrens, and the hole of ukraines people’s lifes, and torres is a better striker than drogba, as soon as he’s knocked a football game becomes a play staring drogba.
October 14th, 2007 at 19:42
Dan although its fair to say Sheva is shit in the premiership, Alves could end up being as well, firstly he doesn’t start ahead of vagner love for Brazil, which isn’t hard to do, and when he has came on he’s been shit, and Torres is really good like, but really Drogba is a better finisher and he holds the ball up better, so although he’s a pussy hes still a better player.
October 14th, 2007 at 21:42
eh-has no one realised yet Torres isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Look at it like this, He has scored 4 goals in the league and 2 of them were against Derby. One was cored through shoddy defending (Spurs) and OK i’ll give him credit for the Chelsea goal. But the fact is he wont score a lot of goals, he will make a lot of chances, but he wont score a lot of goals because he is a bad finisher IMO and is overrated.
October 14th, 2007 at 22:21
red ranter i did not get the part about tevez when you said not so much the country as his much as his role in the side,could you please explain that to me
October 14th, 2007 at 22:29
[M.J]
I meant to say that since he had been a season in England with West Ham, he didn’t have to adapt to the country as such. What he had to adapt to was the club, i.e., United, as he came into the side after our season began.
October 14th, 2007 at 22:35
[john k]
I gave Saha the points that I did because of his crucial goal against Sunderland. We weren’t able to create anything in that game. Saha came in and made a difference. His entry into the side does make a difference, his injuries notwithstanding. Although his role gets overshadowed a lot by the others.
Giggs was bad, admittedly. In any other season if I were to give 6/10 to Giggs, you would know something’s amiss. In past seasons I doubt he would have been anything below 7.5, at worst. So I guess 6/10 is fair do.
October 15th, 2007 at 0:30
playin in that dutch league vs the majority of opposition can flatter players immencly. Kezman n
Kuyt being decent examples. the guys not world class and so therefor not an immediate threat.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:24
i would say he’s top quality tho(kuyt)
liam you forget the hat-trick in the league cup, so thats 7 goals in how many games?
im talking overall not just league.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:16
Yeah but Dan thats the league cup, didn’t Baptista score 4? Kuyt isn’t anything nearl top quality and Torres isn’t world class either, not a great finisher, he can do everything else well but until he becomes a better finisher he won’t be world class.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:47
redranter,u are generous on giggs.a 4 for me.rooney always has people to defend him wven when he isnt on form.it has spoilt him.he needs to be criticised like all others if he is not playing well.a 5 for me.ronaldo?simply the best player we have.8 for me. without him we are laughable going foward.nani 6 has done his role.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:49
look at Kuyts goal scoring record for the pool….its abysmal! could still be settling in but im
not convinced
October 15th, 2007 at 13:25
hi redranter… can u tell me more about the pros and cons of rooney and tevez partnership.. i saw some brilliance and some not so appealing things in the wigan and roma match.. i m die hard rooney-tevez fan as is Mr.Maradona but then do we need someone like huntelaar….
October 15th, 2007 at 14:49
Yeah, totally agree Dan. Kuyts is a top quality plyr, he should be in the pool hall of fame together with those big name like Diouf, Cisse, Morientes, Bellamy, Anelka, Baros… er who else?
Anyway i wonder the number of goals they totally contributed for the pool(in few yrs), would it be any larger than the number of Drogba did for Chelsea last season?
October 15th, 2007 at 17:20
redsnake; in regards to your comments on Alves and the fact that he scores goals that look like shite. Probably the most prolific goal scorer in history was Gerd Mueller and as a big fan I saw many of his goals on video and on replays and believe me when I tell you that many were butt ugly in nature. Goal poachers don’t score pretty goals. They score more from instinct and knowing where to be at the right time within the box. Ruud van Nistelrooy scored some nice goals in his time at Old Trafford but most of them were of the tap in variety or off rebounds etc.
You may be right in your assumption that Alves is not as good as I or others might think. All I am saying is that many great strikers make a living scoring ugly goals and that makes them great in their unique way. And don’t judge a player by a few goals you have seen. Judge over a longer period.
October 15th, 2007 at 17:38
Lets stop slagging the Dutch league. Remember that players like van Nistelrooy and Bergkamp also made goal scoring an easy proposition there too. Are you going to call them bums too? I’m not prepared to completely insult a league that brought us Cruyff, Neeskens, Gullit, van Basten, Rijkaard, Davids etc.
The Dutch are great players and correct me if I’m wrong but over the past 35 years they have accomplished more in European and international competition than England and their elite club sides have won almost as many European trophies as the British sides. For a country that brought us Cruyff and “Total Football” and has been a World Class player factory for leagues like Italy, Spain and England, lets not be so quick to put down the quality of the talent that comes out of there.
Yes Kezman was a bust. But what about the names I have already given as well as Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho as well as other foreigners who have played well for their club?. Don’t forget that their first experience in Europe was playing in Holland. So lets give players like Alves and Huntelaar a little credit and the benefit of the doubt before we categorize them as David Nugents.
And as far as Vagner Love playing in front of Alves for Brazil. Need I mention the many over the hill gang members who are keeping great young English players from making the national side a better one. One blind manager’s player assessment should not hold that kind of weight when judging a player ability and long term potential.
October 15th, 2007 at 19:10
Grognard: Couple of things, Ronaldinho played for PSG not PSV, Vagner Love is certainly not one of the ‘gang’ with Brazil and it is to Dunga’s credit that despite being ‘blind’ he still won the last Copa America.
My issue with the likes of Alves is that they (for me) lack that certain something/spark that set the likes of Ronaldo and RVN apart from plodders with good goal records (Kezmen, Kuyt). That is not to dismiss Alves (or Huntelaar for that matter) as bad players, I just don’t regard them as the second coming as some seem to. Certainly neither looks like they have come of the Total Football production line as, IMO, their games are too limited for that type of praise.
October 15th, 2007 at 23:07
Just remembered I haven’t even commented on the ratings yet. I would say that, if anything, your ratings are a bit on the generous side Redranter. Personally I would take 0.5 off Nani and Tevez and at least 1 off Giggs. All in all it has been a very poor showing from our forwards so far this season.
October 15th, 2007 at 23:22
[JB]
Thanks for the comment on the ratings mate. This is what happens when someone starts off the comment thread with off topic comments
Well, I may have been generous for some people like yourself, but I am sure the Giggs loyalists would still think I am being conservative
I also tried to do it on a case by case basis. I would take these ratings subjectively (I know it’s odd to say that). Meaning, Nani is young had to adapt to the conditions, yet did better than people might have expected.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:39
I don’t know Redranter, I would consider myself a pretty staunch Giggs loyalist but I can’t say much positive about him this season. His performance at Birmingham was easily the worst from a United player this season. Other than that half a point here or there is hardly matters and Giggs would be the only players rating I would really have a gripe with.
October 16th, 2007 at 14:26
I think those ratings are pretty fair but Giggs should perhaps be a bit lower as he has played in almost every game and only impressed once. I think we are now starting to see what we want from our top players and when Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez play together regularly then their rating will certainly be a lot higher. Perhaps a Christmas review is on the cards.
October 16th, 2007 at 17:23
Alves is not so good at holding the ball..
October 16th, 2007 at 18:04
Yes JB you are right about Ronaldinho. He wasn’t at PSV but at PSG. A stupid mistake on my part. As for skill though, I have to say I have seen Huntelaar play numerous times and I find him just as skillful as Ruud and other top strikers. He’s not as quick with the ball at his feet as Ruud but he is just as direct, imaginative and reacts quickly. He is also superior in the area of heading and scoring gals of the acrobatic variety. As we all know that takes timing and skill.
I keep hearing the names Kezman and Kuyt come up as poster children for the low grade of the Eredivisie. Fair enough, those blokes never measured up to their billing but there have been many players from Spain and Italy who haven’t measured up too. In fact there have been great Britishers like Gaza for one who never made the grade in Italy. Kuyt was a good goal scorer in Holland but he wasn’t prolific. He’s just another of Rafa’s overrated buys, and lets face it, he’s had many of those. Why not slag Spain for some of the turkey’s he’s bought from there? Holland doesn’t turn out “Total Footballers” anymore but they are a country rich in football tradition, practice and technical conditioning. Whether they develop Dutch or foreign talent, they do a pretty decent job. Alves may not be the super striker his numbers indicate, but I feel he is made of more substantial stuff than what many may think. If I am Manchester United however, I look at more proven talent to fill my striker needs and less potential talent. We need to find an experience goal poacher who has done it at the highest level. We not only have to replace Rossi, and Ruud, but probably Saha too. Enough of the 17 to 20 year olds. They’re all find and such but we need to find an accomplished star in the 20 to 25 bracket. And one who stays healthy.
October 17th, 2007 at 20:25
I think Saha is better than Tevez