Essien was my man of the match. There were half a dozen Utd players who had very good games but none better than the others. But this guy was outstanding for Lyon. It's unusual for the mom to go to a player from the away and losing side but I think it would be justified in this case.
like others said, we played an amazing game that drew on the versatility of the team. I think its what some would call total football, we had only 4 out players who did not participate fully in both attack and defence: Ruud, Rio, Silvestre, and Keane. Everyone else including our fullbacks on offense and our midfielders on defence had multiple roles. Rooney was a rightback for a time it seemed and Smith was drifting around alot, as too was Scholes. Even Ruud was not simply central. The game was nice because we not only looked good in possesion but we did it in different ways. We countered effectively though Smith, Ronaldo and Ruud, we had some nice build up with the aid of movement and passing by Scholes and Rooney, we had good wing play by Ronaldo or Rooney and the fullbacks and Smith gave us some muscle and aerial pressure flicking on long balls. The team is flowing, looking both creative and dangerous. Another thing that is nice to consider is that we still had Giggs and Saha to throw at them (injuries aside).
And Rio did join in on one notable occasion I'm very impressed with Rooney's mobility. I recall a play in the Charlton game when he tackled a player 10 yards from his own goal-line in the right back position and 20 seconds later he was receiving a pass only 5 or 6 yards from the Charlton goal-line on the edge of their box. I've not been impressed by Ruud's holding play in the past but anyone else think that he's been improving that part of his play enormously recently? Not only is our attacking play becoming much more effective but the defence is holding up well also. Lyon are a very successful attacking team and were certainly not sitting back in this game but Carroll was not called on to do much at all in this game (except once ). A very impressive display all round - but two more goals would have finished it off nicely
Ruud's holding up has been superb of late. He's always said he's been looking to involve himself in build-ups more, and I guess he's no Henry and this is the strength he could use to help create goals for others.