i don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but both remaining matches look done and dusted.....so...... ..... how do we stop the little midget?
You do exactly what Pepe did to him until he was wrongly sent off, Messi did next to nothing until after the red card because Pepe stopped him from playing, he took the ball off him almost every single time he tried to turn and run.
Agree but think your (I'm a Sunderland fan) players need to share the load between them. One guy constantly tackling and closing down would probably get sent off-so mark him in ten minute sessions and rotate the marker. Problem is I think you need to do the same to Xavi and Iniesta as well. Will Ferguson match up to Barcelona's 1-4-6 formation? I think he has to and if he is fit then I think Fletcher has to come in and Hernandez drop out of the starting eleven, which is a shame but I think if Man. Utd can contain Barcelona for an hour then your speed in Park and Valencia will cause them major problems and you will win. Get your midfield (with Fletcher etc.) forcing Xavi and Iniesta facing their own goal and passing back to their back 4 and I think you have a great chance. ps if Scholes plays then he cannot afford any rash tackles or he will be off in record time.
Completely shut down the space between midfield and defence with 2 positionally excellent DM's . It worked last year vs inter, chelsea also did it the year before.
We are not in the final yet!!! Shalke have done crazy things this season. I am not writting them off. We have good chance to get to the final but sill another 90mins left and in 90 mins shalke scored 5 away against Inter. Game is not over
Get the bloke who threatened to kneecap Gerrard to actually do it to Messi. Tho I reckon even with no knees he'd still be pretty damn good. In all seriousness, just pack the midfield and close off the area between midfield and defence where Messi and Iniesta like to operate. We could play: --------Hernandez Park---Ando/Giggs---Rooney ----Carrick---Fletcher Evra---Vida---Rio---O'Shea -----------VDS We'd basically not leave a gap anywhere on the pitch, and have wide players that were comfortable coming inside to defend and also tracking the full backs. Don't let them form any triangles or get any sort of passing momentum up, and look to get in behind them with swift counter attacks like we did against Arsenal in 2009. And if it's still tight after 60-70 mins we can bring Valencia and Nani on and go to town on their full backs after Park and Rooney have run them into the ground. And just hope the ref isn't a knob who'll send players off for breathing on their opponents.
So long as the 2nd leg goes to plan DON'T play Scholes. Too slow and besides with his bad tackling the Barc players would have a field day running to the referee.
Yeah, shades of 2009. Still can't help but wonder what would have happened in that match had Hargo been around to boss the midfield like he did against the chavs in 2008...
I don't remember him bossing the midfield against Chelsea swarbs. If I remember he was playing wide right with Ronaldo left and Tevez Rooney upfront
Yeah but he was constantly coming inside to break up attacks and harrassing Chelsea whenever they got near our penalty area. Imo he was one of the reasons we had 58% possession and Chelsea barely tested VDS at all apart from the flukey goal and Rio's mis-header. Hargreaves has proven to be a bigger loss to us than Ronaldo.
United always give teams time on the ball, that's how we dominated the first half when we played you. So you will have to change this when you play Barca. Or you could try and outplay them, play attacking football and try and score as many as possible. Good luck, I'm enjoying watching united at the moment.
I agree with Swarbs. Pack the midfield out. An attempt to disrupt the "beautiful passing game" of barca would limit the supply to Messi, which in theory would give United a better chance.
So would a United with Hargreaves. And with Hargreaves we would have done way better against Barca in 09 and Bayern in 10.
If we do reach the final of the Champions League, and play against Barcelona as expected. It will be very tough not keeping faith in the players whom have worked hard in making sure we reach this stage of the competition. It's arguable that Carrick and Giggs aren't as strong enough as Barcelona's talented midfielder's. But from my point of view, Carrick's and Giggs's game must put the right amount of pressure on Barcelona. If they are both to play against Barcelona in the Champions League final, I'm presuming both of them will be working on a lot of things which include, composure and being able to read basic passes which Barcelona are capable of doing. If they both do not get that right, I have a feeling it could be very similar to the game which was played Bernabéu. Also, I'm hoping Nani starts on the left wing. In my opinion, Valencia and Park Ji-Sung must fight it out for a starting line-up position. Both of the players are capable of intercepting play, but the decision making is up to Sir Alex Ferguson.
