Manchester United vs Sunderland: Rating the United Players from the 1-0 Win

Manchester United turned up the heat on Premier League leaders and close rivals Manchester City with a 1-0 home victory over Sunderland on Saturday at Old Trafford.

Though the pre-match build up had centred around Alex Ferguson's 25th anniversary of being in charge of United, the on-pitch action lacked the same appeal as both sides laboured to produce anything of real quality in the final third.

That the game was won in the end with a backwards-headed own goal by former United defender Wes Brown just about summed up the match as a whole; United just about did enough without being anywhere close to their best, while Sunderland were game for a battle and got through plenty of work, but clearly lacked substance in the United penalty box.

Here are the rankings for United's players on the day.

Given the nod to start in goal ahead of regular number one David De Gea, Lindegaard had almost nothing to do for the entire game.

It's not his fault, of course, that he doesn't merit a higher mark. The Dane dealt quietly with any aerial threats and his distribution was fairly good, but this wasn't the most testing experience for him in English football and will not really tell Ferguson anything about his capacity to challenge for a regular first team spot.

Three shots on goal from Sunderland in the whole game tells its own story.

Another steady performance from Jones at right-back, who is making the most of Chris Smalling's foot injury to get regular 90 minutes under his belt in a variety of positions.

Jones got forward on several occasions to overlap Nani, though he was unable to send in more than one testing cross for his forwards to attack.

Never unduly troubled defensively.

A relatively quiet afternoon for United's defensive duo. Vidic was briefly involved in a moment of controversy as the assistant appeared to signal for a Sunderland penalty for a handball by the Serbian, but the referee saw what actually happened and gave the free kick to United instead.

It is clear what a quality player Vidic is for United and how much organisation and leadership he brings to the side. For the second weekend in succession he has ordered his defence to a clean sheet and a narrow 1-0 victory.

Much like his central partner Vidic, Rio Ferdinand had a fairly calm afternoon and was never really troubled by Nicklas Bendtner or Ji Don Won.

He played the ball out of defence well and was strong in the air when he needed to be. On a personal level, Ferdinand will just be pleased to be back in the starting 11 again alongside Vidic after Jonny Evans had been given the nod last week.

Evra was a constant outlet for United down their left flank and provided width high up the pitch all game long.

His crossing was not at its pin-point best, but then again to be fair there were rarely huge numbers in the Sunderland box for him to aim at.

He troubled Seb Larsson far more in attack than the Swede did to him, which is always a good start.

A decent performance from Evra, who would have scored too had it not been for a fantastic double save by the Sunderland 'keeper Kieren Westwood.

On the ball more than most for United today, Nani was extremely wasteful in possession, both in open play and from his set pieces—save for the one which led to United's winning goal.

That corner aside, which also wasn't met by a teammate in red, Nani never offered a consistent crossing threat during the game and also wastefully shot on more than one occasion when a pass might have been the better option.

He will have far better games this season and make his mark on United's team again, but the Portuguese winger is out of sorts at the moment.

Deployed in a slightly more withdrawn role alongside the obviously more offensive-minded Wayne Rooney, Fletcher provided a more or less effective shield for his back four and moved the ball about fairly well today.

Still not quite at his best and unable to impose himself on games in the way he likes to, Fletcher struggled at times to get to grips with the more combative Sunderland midfield.

In saying that, United never at any point looked like they would be overrun in the middle of the pitch and Fletcher still got through a lot of work before being substituted late in the game.

Continuing in his much deeper than usual role, Rooney delivered a professional and disciplined midfield performance for United.

What the likes of Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia must think as they're left on the bench while Rooney continues in midfield, one can only guess. But Rooney's job was to provide some quality possession in the attacking areas of the field, and he did that relatively well today.

Though he was unable to carve open the Sunderland defence or constantly attack the area from deep, he did spray the ball about the pitch at times and get involved in a few tasty challenges, one for which he was lucky perhaps not to be booked.

Rooney did well again in this midfield position, but there can be no doubt that United lose plenty in attack when he is not there—though he did almost score from close range with the first of two shots which Westwood did supremely well to keep out.

The picture captures pretty well the lasting images of this game: Ji-Sung Park being repeatedly fouled by Sunderland's midfield.

On perhaps half a dozen occasions the South Korean was tripped and felled as he sought to make headway towards the Black Cats penalty area.

Not the most technically gifted or fastest player, Park nonetheless provided an energy and will to attack for United today that would otherwise have been entirely absent, and he was almost always the spark when United began a concerted period of pressure.

United were sluggish in their build-up play for much of the game and that tempo seeped all the way through the team to the two players at the top end of the pitch. As a result, the movement of Danny Welbeck and his partner was below the expected level.

He was inadvertently involved in the goal, missing the corner as it came over and allowing it to strike Wes Brown. Welbeck had the odd opportunity to trouble Keiren Westwood but was unable to ever seriously look like scoring.

Replaced in the second half.

One of the problems with being a striker so focussed on predatory instincts is that they often lack too much contribution in the build-up play, and as a result tend to be not seen during a game if a team has few attacks.

That problem afflicted Hernandez today as he was unusually quiet and missing in action.

One shot on the spin flew well over the bar, while another chance was cleared off the line by Richardson, but all in all it was a frustrating day at the office for the Mexican forward.

Dimitar Berbatov

Was the first United change, coming on for Danny Welbeck with a little more than a quarter of an hour to go. However, his only real contribution was to get shouted at by Rio Ferdinand for not defending the right area of the pitch at a set piece.

He was unable to get into the game, which was already starting to peter out by then (if it could even be said to have gotten started at some point). 6/10.

Michael Carrick

Came on with just seven minutes to go in place of Ji-Sung Park, and obviously had little time therefore to have an impact. He almost did though, as his calm and composed through pass to Hernandez led to a shooting chance inside the box, which was wasted. 6/10.

Fabio da Silva 

Made an injury-time cameo appearance in place of Darren Fletcher as United sought to see out the game. No rating.