These are Fresh Football’s ratings for the EFL Cup final between Manchester United and Southampton.
Manchester United
David De Gea – 6.5Made a couple of decent saves throughout the encounter, with the Spaniard left with little chance in stopping the other two Southampton strikes in a 3-2 win.
Antonio Valencia – 6.5Solid and active down the right flank, particularly towards the end of the game.
Eric Bailly – 5.5Not the best showing in a United shirt, offering a few moments of unease when inpossession and struggling to cope with Manolo Gabbiadini’s presence inside the box.Chris
Smalling – 6Slightly better than his centre back duo, but, again, hardly the convincing performance José Mourinho will have been hoping for in a final.Marcos Rojo – 5Stranded and in real trouble out on the left-hand side of United’s defence, as Cedric and Dusan
Tadic caused problems for periods of the game. Subsequently,the Argentine offered very little going forwards, too.Ander Herrera – 5.
5Outfought for periods of the game, as the Saints swamped the midfield, but Herrera did eventually come up with the pass of the match when assisting ZlatanIbrahimovic for the win.
Paul Pogba – 6.5Struggled with the intensity of Southampton’s game for large periods, but once Claude Puel’s side waned, the Frenchman grew into the game to regain some control for United.
Juan Mata – 4.5Ineffective throughout his 45-minute showing, which is why Mourinho saw him as the strongest candidate to make way for Michael Carrick at half-time.Jesse
Lingard – 6Hit a big goal for United, but aside from that, there was little else to take note of, minus a lot of running.
Anthony Martial – 5Lively and threatening when given space to attack, but the Frenchman was very rarely afforded the opportunities to do so.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 7.5The match-winner for United, as he put the Red Devil’s ahead in the first half with a free-kick.
Having lost many of his fair-share of battles against the Saints’ defensive duo, the Swede had the last laugh with the winning goal deep into the final stages of the game.
Subs Michael Carrick – 6Helped regain some sort of control and method to United’s play, as Southamptonrelinquished their dominance.
Marcus Rashford – N/AMarouane Fellaini – N/A
Southampton
Fraser Forster – 5Could have done better to stop Ibrahimovic’s goal from a free kick, although the wall also didn’t offer a great deal of help to the former Celtic man either.
Cedric Soares – 7.
5A quality performance from the Portugal international, who found Gabbiadini for the one-touch finish on two separate occasions, despite only one of them counting in accordance to the linesman’s flag.
Maya Yoshida – 7The Southampton old-timer led by example up against Ibrahimovic at the heart of a depleted defensive sector.
Jack Stephens – 6.5Bar a couple of costly mistakes in two of United’s three goals, Stephens but up a fight in front of Forster’s goal.
Ryan Bertrand – 6.
5A decent performance from the ex-Chelsea full back, both going forwards and backwards.Oriol Romeu – 7.
5Took on the heavy duty of destroying United’s play and did so very well, despite being yellow carded early on.
Steven Davis – 7A big effort from the Saints captain, who helped Romeu in his defensive duties to great success.
James Ward-Prowse – 6.5One moment he was wide, the next closing down through the middle – a tricky role for the young midfielder, but he executed it quite well.
Dusan Tadic – 5Despite a handful of decent deliveries from set-pieces, the Serbian playmaker can feel a little disappointed with himself in the final third.
Nathan Redmond – 8.5A strong contender for Man of the Match, irrespective of being on the losing side, Redmond was at the heart of plenty of positive moves created by Puel’s side.
Manolo Gabbiadini – 8.5Up there with Redmond, the ex-Napoli and Sampdoria man took his chances brilliantly when they came, as his hot streak with the South Coast club continues.
SubsSofiane Boufal – 5In to refresh Southampton’s attacking sector, but Boufal ended up seeing very little of the ball.Shane Long – N/AJay Rodriguez – N/A
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