By Chris Baker
January 8 2006

Regular forum poster and season ticket holder Chris Baker's player ratings following Uniteds 1-0 win against Mansfield in the FA Cup. Given 7 - Not much to do apart from one or two saves the whole game. Good distribution of the ball.
Carr 5 - Poor game in my opinion. At times he was even drifting over to the left of midfield, didn't work well up and down the flank with Brittain at all, and was always whinging at his team mates about things.
Boumsong 7 - Solid game for him, no errors.
Bramble 7.5 - Same as Boumsong, stood out a little bit more though. Great tackle on the halfway line which led to Shearer's goal.
Babayaro 6.5 - Better than Carr was down the right, was a bit more involved, particularly 2nd half.
Brittain 5 - Poor performance from him, always drifting into the middle. Too often stopped his run down the flank and just stopped and passed it back. Disappointed.
N'Zogbia 5 - To be fair he was shocking in the first half. Poor passes, committed a lot of fouls and gave the ball away a lot. One moment that stands out for me is when we broke away and had Luque on his left, he played the ball about 5 yards behind him. Better in the 2nd half but still, a poor game overall in the middle.
Clark 5.5 - Better than N'Zogbia, but generally not a very good showing.
Solano 5.5 - Didn't look good on the left flank, he was going into the middle and sometimes on the right as well. Better in the 2nd half.
Shearer 6 - Scored the match winner but to be fair didn't do much else, largely due to no creativity in the team. Had a few chances 2nd half.
Luque 6 - Didn't score but set it up nicely for Shearer, he had an average game overall. As with Shearer, no creativity to work off, or poor passes from N'Zogbia. Moved to the left wing when Chopra came on, and wasn't bad, a few promising crosses. Went off injured.

Subs:

Ramage 6 - I'd have put Ramage on at half time because Carr had been poor, but when he was put on, Carr had improved a bit. He performed better than Carr, but nothing special. No errors.
Chopra 8 - Looked 100% committed, battled for every ball within 10 yards of him, at one point got the ball and had Shearer free to march on goal but a foul was called. Great display, definitely deserves a place on the bench at Fulham.
O'Brien 6 - No time to impress really, but ran around and looked committed.

Souness 8 - N'Zogbia in the middle was a poor option, but it was the only option. It was better to play him there than Solano, Brittain, or anyone else. Good to see Carr back in the team, I felt it was right to play him, also right to take him off for Ramage. Would have liked to see O'Brien get more time though. To be honest if it was me in charge, I'd have started O'Brien on the left, Solano back on the right, but I feel that Brittain is ahead of O'Brien in the pecking order as far as the youngsters are concerned and Souness felt he had to play him ahead of O'Brien. At the same time, Souness knows more about these two players than I do. However I felt the team badly lacked pace today and O'Brien is the fastest player in the squad.