Sunderland 0-0 Manchester United: Player Ratings

Five changes. One point. Lammens kept it level. The squad got minutes the squad needed.

Intro

The five-change rotation was always going to tell us something, but mostly what it told us is that Sunderland are a tougher team to play at home than the recent five-game form suggested, and that the players who don't usually start aren't going to walk into a Premier League game at this level and dominate. That's a normal thing. Carrick made calls he was probably going to make at some point in these last three fixtures regardless of where the points stood, and the points stood in a place where the calls were affordable. We got a point. We're a point from third. We move on.

Senne Lammens was the best player on the pitch. Sunderland created the better chances. Bruno didn't have his runners. The captain's day-after-FWA performance was subdued, which was always the most likely outcome in a game where Sesko was out and the system was missing its top-line runner.

This was a rotation game, not a referendum.

Perspective

Two things have to sit alongside each other here. The first is that this is the best United campaign since 2022/23. Six points clear of Liverpool with two to play. Third place a single point away. Champions League money already in. Captain has won Footballer of the Year. Mainoo has signed his new deal and won Player of the Matchweek for the Liverpool winner. The team has won at the Emirates, won at Old Trafford against Liverpool, won the league double over Manchester City. None of that is in question.

The second is that Sunderland are not a bad team and Stadium of Light is not an easy place to go. They were the only unbeaten home side in the league through mid-February. They drew with Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa at home. They beat Newcastle. The recent five-game home wobble does not erase eighteen games of being genuinely difficult to play. We assumed today would be straightforward because the form arrow on Sunderland was pointing down. The form arrow doesn't run the football match.

Both true. Both fine. Move on.

Key takeaways

The rotation was the right call. Casemiro out (minor injury), Ugarte out (training knock), Sesko out (leg knock from Liverpool). Two of those players form United’s spine. The rotational logic was forced as much as chosen. Mount and Zirkzee got rare starts. Mainoo and Bruno carried the what was left of the Midfield.

Lammens is the answer. He has been the difference much of this season. He was the difference today. We can stop wondering about the goalkeeper position. He's it.

Bruno without runners is a quieter Bruno. He created 120 chances this season because he had Sesko, Cunha, Mainoo and Mbeumo making coordinated runs. With Sesko out and Zirkzee as the focal point, the runners didn't move and Bruno's passes had nowhere to go. The day after Footballer of the Year. Not his fault. Worth knowing.

Stadium of Light is genuinely hard. Sunderland have lost four of their last five at home. They were also unbeaten there for the first half of the season. Today was the home team that showed up, not the recent-form team.

Player performance

Goalkeeper

Senne Lammens — 9/10. Sky's Man of the Match. The clean sheet was his. Saves on Sadiki in the first half, saves on Brobbey in the second, calm with crosses, calm with set pieces. The pattern is a body of work now. He kept us in the Liverpool game. He kept us in this one. The first-choice slot is his and the conversation about who plays in goal next season can be put away.

Defenders

Noussair Mazraoui — 6/10. Solid against Talbi, who gave him a rough afternoon. Stayed afloat. Didn't offer much going forward. What has Afcon done to our African players?

Harry Maguire — 6/10. OK game. Good in the air. Won his physical duels. The kind of performance that doesn't decide a game but doesn't lose it either.

Lisandro Martinez — 5/10. First start since suspension and a tough one. Brobbey got the better of him in multiple moments. Started deeper than usual and was anonymous. Some of that is Brobbey having a strong game; some of it is Martinez easing back in. The Football Insider piece this week reporting United have "serious concerns" about his physicality reads slightly louder after this performance, but a tough afternoon back from a three-game suspension is also just a tough afternoon back from a three-game suspension.

Luke Shaw — 6/10. Worked hard defensively. Provided no attacking width on the left. The same critique that Mazraoui got, mirrored on the other side. With Diouf or another left-back coming this summer, today was a quiet reminder of why.

Midfielders

Kobbie Mainoo — 7/10. United's best outfield player. The 3,000 traveling fans serenaded him with a Billy Ocean parody all afternoon: "Mainoo, United can't play without you." Read the game well without Casemiro next to him. Our best moments in possession were the moments he was driving them.

Mason Mount — 5/10. Rare start, first since January, and he put himself about. Got booked for a bad foul. The case for Mount in this team remains thin, but he wasn't the reason today's game was the way it was. He worked.

Bruno Fernandes — 6/10. Subdued. Tried to lead. The runners weren't there to find. Twenty-four hours after winning Footballer of the Year, his quietest game of the spring. Still could have had an assist today, but the hunt for 20 continues.

Forwards

Amad Diallo — 5/10. Back at his old loan club, where he had a successful spell, and the away end gave him the welcome. The performance didn't match it. Should have squared for Cunha on a counter-attack and didn't. Slipped on the ball in another sequence. Failed to impress his old fans from his loan spell.

Matheus Cunha — 6/10. Did Cunha things. Fouled on eight minutes, crossed for Zirkzee on 28, booked for diving on 90+3 after going down in the box. The 92nd-minute shot saved by Roefs was United's only effort on target all afternoon. The booking will draw the headlines. Cunha drops, Cunha carries, Cunha plays through traffic. He doesn't run beyond. Bruno needs runs beyond. There was a Sesko-shaped hole in the team today.

Joshua Zirkzee — 5/10. Came in to make a case and didn't make it. Couldn't hold the ball up against Sunderland's energetic defending. Glancing header didn't trouble Roefs. First one hooked. The summer expected exit just got slightly more expected, but it was always going to be expected.

Substitutes

Patrick Dorgu (Zirkzee, 64') — 5/10. Came on with the game in the balance. Made no difference. Brought Roefs down with a foul in the 82nd. Slipped on the ball.

Bryan Mbeumo (Amad, 76') — 5/10. Last action of the game was a volleyed corner wide in the 92nd. Whether starting Mbeumo over Zirkzee would have changed the game is a question Carrick is allowed to consider, but it's not one anyone outside the building is going to settle.

The manager

Michael Carrick — 6/10.

The selection was rotational logic. Five changes from the Liverpool eleven, with three of them forced by injury. Mount got a rare start. Zirkzee got a rare start. Both happened in a game where the points were affordable. The decision to start Zirkzee over Mbeumo will be debated, but the rest was the rotation a manager has to make at some point in three games in eight days with players carrying knocks.

In-game, the first sub came in the 64th minute, by which point Sunderland had been the better side for stretches and Lammens had already done the keeper part of his job. The reshuffle didn't change the rhythm of the game, but rhythm against a packed Sunderland midfield was always going to be hard.

Post-match was the moment of the day. Carrick took offence at the "on the beach" question and defended his players publicly. That's the kind of thing a manager who is staying says about his players. The question was probably ungenerous. The performance had still happened. Both true.

The case for Carrick as permanent head coach does not depend on this game. The case is the run since January, the dressing-room buy-in, the Champions League qualification, and the fact that the players publicly back him. A goalless draw at a tough away ground in which the keeper saved the day does not undo any of that. The announcement window closes Sunday.

Moving forward

Two home games. Brighton on Wednesday, Aston Villa on Sunday. Both at Old Trafford. Both meaningful.

Third place needs one point. Liverpool would need to win both their remaining and have United lose both theirs to overtake on goal difference. The combination is plausible only as a sequence and barely plausible as that. Third is essentially locked.

Bruno is on nineteen Premier League assists. The all-time single-season record is twenty, shared by Henry and De Bruyne. Two home games to get one assist and break it outright.

Sesko is the question. The leg knock that kept him out today was the same one from the Liverpool game. If he's back Wednesday, the system has its missing component back. If he isn't, Cunha at the nine again and the same structural problem is the same structural problem.

Casemiro returns to Old Trafford for what is likely his last home game in front of the home crowd before he leaves as a free agent this summer. That's the night the real emotional weight of this season starts to land.

The summer is closer than the summer was yesterday. The manager announcement is closer than the manager announcement was yesterday.

Recap

Five changes. One shot on target. A 9/10 from the keeper. A point we'll take in the context of where the season sits. Sunderland are a better team at home than the away record suggests and we found that out the hard way. Lammens kept it level. Mainoo was the best outfielder. Bruno had a quiet day after the loudest day of his career. The rotation cost us a couple of points; the rotation also gave players minutes that needed to be given.

Six points clear with two to play. One point from third. One assist from history. One announcement from the rest of the season.

The captain has nineteen and goes home for two games to chase one more.