United 1 - QPR 0 Highlights

By: Taylor Rockwell | November 12th, 2008

Not the most exciting game (due mostly to the absence of Manucho…. and that fact that it apparently was only broadcast in the Far East). Nevertheless, a win is a win, and I hope that this gives the youth brigade something to build on. As far as I can tell, the most noteworthy point of the game was that, as hard as Tevez was trying to score, Anderson seemed to be doing everything in his power to keep himself from hurting the back of the net.

United 1 - QPR 0 (Tevez 76′)

For full match highlights (all 80 seconds of them, click here)

Player Rankings from the Manchester Evening News:

Kuszczak: The Pole’s chances of catching the eye were non-existent 5

Rafael: One or two moments that got crowd to edge of their seats 6

Neville: A much more comfortable experience than the Emirates for the skipper 6

Evans: Rangers had nothing to test the assured defending of the Irishman 6

O’Shea: Steady enough defending but not enough of Johnny marching down wing 5

Park: Had one great effort strike woodwork and the usual Korean’s hard work 6

Gibson: The Irishman has a calm Carrick-like head but didn’t fully stamp himself on game 6

Anderson: As you would expect he was influential against the championship side 7

Possebon: The Brazilian had a quiet game despite United’s dominance 5

Nani: Against this opposition the winger didn’t have as big an impact as he should have 5

Tevez: A great effort from the South American to liven the evening up 8

I feel I have to say it again: really disappointed not to see Manucho. I know he’s young and coming back from injury, but to not get a run out tonight makes me wonder how highly (or, I suppose, low) Ferguson ranks him. In the prematch interview on MUTV (shortly before they cut my feed and I about broke my computer), Fergie stated that he hoped to get both Welbeck AND Manucho some minutes tonight. He brought Welbeck in to liven things up, and sure enough, the youngster gets a penalty. With QPR never really looking (or, rather, sounding) all that likely to score, I still can’t see why he didn’t insert the speedy Angolan. With a mounting fixture list and only three other out-and-out strikers, it would have been an opportune time to give the lad a chance. Instead, we were subjected to a full match of Park and his continued experiment to see how bad his first touch can be.