Player Ratings: Manchester City U21s 3-4 Manchester United U21s | OneFootball

Manchester United Under-21s defeated rivals Manchester City U21s in an exciting end-to-end match to book their place in the Premier League 2 play-off finals.

These are our player ratings for the match. You can read a detailed match report here.

(A score of six is around average.)

Ratings

Will Murdock – 8.5 – Finished the match with nine saves, many of which were of high quality. If it were not for him, the match likely could have been over before it even really started as City dominated the opening exchanges. His alertness off the line to sweep up balls in behind was also vital to help the backline, who struggled with them.

Jaydan Kamason – 5.5 – A decent performance with the ball, as he linked up well with Lacey and was key to setting up the first goal. However, defensively he had a tough night up against Reigan Heskey, who twisted him inside out on his way to picking up three assists.

Sonny Aljofree – 5 – Lost his man for City’s first goal and, in general, struggled with balls into the channels.

Dan Armer – 6 – A polarising performance, he was excellent with his distribution out of the back. His cross-field pass unleashed Lacey for the second goal and his line-splitting pass started the move that saw United win the penalty. Out of possession, though, he had a night to forget, as City looked to isolate him and exposed his lack of speed as he was consistently beaten one-v-one with balls into space.

Diego Leon – 5.5 – The most consistent of the backline, he did not get exposed as often but also did not have the highs with his on-the-ball contributions.

Jim Thwaites – 8.5 – He set down a marker with Michael Carrick watching on in attendance. Tasked with playing at the base of the midfield behind two number 10s, he often had little support but handled the challenge as well as anyone could. He moved the ball quickly, and his feints and turns under pressure to open space were key to United not getting completely overrun in midfield. Defending is not normally his strong suit, but you would not have known it as he put himself about and flew into challenges.

Jack Moorhouse – 6.5 – Came up with the big moments; his driving dribble resulted in Musa winning the penalty and he scored the ultimate match winner. However, as a number eight, he did not provide enough in midfield and offered little support to Thwaites or the backline.

Shea Lacey – 8 – Had a slow start to the match but came alive after assisting the second goal. He began to get on the ball more and found a lot of joy taking on his man, coming close with a couple of curling efforts and could have had another assist. He also took his penalty well to get his name on the scoresheet.

Jack Fletcher – 6.5 – An up-and-down 90 minutes, he drifted in and out of the match. In possession, he did well early on with quick passing and interchanges with Thwaites. However, with City having more of the possession, he never got a chance to really pull the strings and at times looked confused positionally on when to push or not, with Moorhouse also staying high. He did put in a defensive shift, dropping back to support and pressing quickly.

Victor Musa – 8 – Nothing fancy but did everything right on the night. He worked relentlessly hard and provided a good target man outlet with his ability in the air. His clever header back to Obi earned him an assist for the first goal, and his run in behind earned the penalty for the third. He then assisted Moorhouse for the fourth as well.

Chido Obi – 8 – Clinical finishing in the area; his fox-in-the-box headers, both of which were inside the six-yard box, launched United’s first half comeback. He also almost scored a third, but saw his effort scrambled off the goal line. Towards the end, he had fewer chances around goal but worked hard as a target man to hold up play and press from the front.

Substitutes

James Scanlon – 6 – Did not have much of a chance to do much in attack but helped double up at the back and support the full-backs.

Gabriele Biancheri – N/A – Not on the pitch for long but did well to control a long ball and provide some respite from City’s attacks at the end.

Rafe McCormack – N/A – Only played a couple of minutes but made an important tackle in that time.

Feature image James Fearn via Getty Images

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