Another away game, another defeat — United fans have now got used to this. Last night, Sunderland, who haven’t beaten us at the Stadium Of Light since 1997, finally did so. It’s not that we played poorly, it’s that the Black Cats had far more desire than us. They were good on and off the ball, defended sternly and in general, didn’t look like a side battling to prevent the drop. Although Anthony Martial did equalise for us, yet we ended up conceding once again from a corner, and it never really looked like we could come back from there. Here are the player ratings from the game:

De Gea — 7

De Gea did make a couple of good saves last night, but the United keeper wasn’t at his best. He probably could have done a bit better with the second goal, given his quality. It was unfortunate for him to let in the first goal, as he was hind sighted. Also, his distribution wasn’t really the best.

Darmian — 6.5

Darmian was decent while defending for the time he was on there, but his crosses were extremely poor. There were a couple of times in the first half when he could have done better as Rooney was free down the middle, but he mishit it.

Smalling — 5.5

Despite being surprisingly consistent so far, Smalling was shambolic last night as he lost his marker a couple of times, something which eventually led to Sunderland scoring a free header in the 2nd half.

Blind — 6

Blind had a decent game, as he picked up some clever passes to the frontmen and defended well. Although he got beaten for pace at times, yet he recovered well to save the situation.

Borthwick- Jackson — 7

The youngster put in another good performance as he defended sternly and provided a great overlapping option to Martial. The two of them seem to have struck up quite the partnership down the left wing.

Carrick— 6

The veteran was off-colour yesterday, as he passed poorly and was caught on the ball a few times.

Schneiderlin — 5

The Frenchman was horribly off song last night, as he lost possession of the ball repeatedly and couldn’t pick the right time to tackle. Eventually, he was substituted.

Mata — 7

Mata had a good game last night, as he put in a number of key passes for Rooney as well as used the flanks wisely.

Lingard — 5.5

The young winger was not at his best last night, as he couldn’t get behind the fullbacks or put in crosses. Eventually, he was also subbed.

Martial —7.5

United’s best player on the pitch, and the goalscorer as well. Martial was excellent going forward as he repeatedly cut in and whipped in a low cross or a pass. 10 goals for him already this season and one can only expect him to improve and continue impressing.

Rooney — 6

United’s no. 10 was hoping he would get to continue his rich run of form, but that didn’t happen, as he fluffed a couple of chances. However, he did drop in deep to get the ball on a number of occasions.

SUBS:

Depay— 5.5

The Dutch winger was bought on in place of Jesse Lingard, but he couldn’t really break the Sunderland defence.

Love — 7

The youngster made his debut in the game, for the injured Darmian and impressed one and all. He was excellent on his forward runs and defended well too. Another excellent prospect in the making hopefully.

Keane — 5

The striker was thrown in place of Schneiderlin to get the equaliser after he scored 5 versus Norwich U21s last week, but to be fair to him, it was a desperate ploy that was unlikely to ever work.