CL Final

Jumping the gun I know. But presuming you will play Barca in the final how do you stop Messi?

Do you think a change of formation or man marking will help? Barca are not a one man team but Messi is the main threat and can be unstoppable.

If my team was playing Barca at the moment i'd be

 

Messi will be red carded in the return leg, so will miss the final

 

obviously from the the 1st legs it looks like barca v man utd in the final,from an english point of view i would like to see man utd win,thats me being a football fan,but from a liverpool point of view i want to see liverpool win it again rather pretty soon (along with the odd prem title of course)

 

Gibson will **** Messi up so badly he'll be ****ting through a straw. Just you wait and see

 

Loving the complete denial! Lets not talk about Messi attitude he really doesn't matter.

 

To play against Messi you need one player behind whoever is marking him. As long as you keep shape in that way then you can keep Messi out of the game. The problem is, he's thast good hat as soon as you lose concentration for just a moment he can get through and score.

We don't want to put too much attention onto Messi alone though, Barcelona have a few match winners in thier team.

The best defence against them imo is to play in thier half.

 

Lol, well let's be honest there isn't much you can do to specifically stop Messi. I expect we'll use Rooney and Park to try and hassle their midfield to prevent him getting the ball as much as possible, and Fletcher with Anderson / Carrick in a holding role to hassle him as much as possible if he does get possession. But I don't reckon we'll devote too much energy to him - if we focus too much attention on stopping Messi then Iniesta and Villa will punish us.

To be honest, Messi he had very little impact against Real until they went down to ten men and gaps started to appear. So the main thing is to be disciplined, defend as a unit, and not lose our heads like we did in 2009. To be honest we are arguably in better shape mentally to deal with Barca now than we were in 2009 - we won't be tempted to try and play expansive passing football against them like we did back then, and our team is more aware of its shortcomings, and better able to overcome them by working together. But it's still going to be a struggle.

 

Completely agree, you can't worry too much about him, if he's on form on the day he will be unstoppable anyway. Keeping your heads and shape is going to be important to the overall result. It's best to concentrate on your own team and your own football than worrying about the opposition.

 

Just play how all the great United teams of the past play - compact, defensive, spoiling then attack when you get a chance.

 

How are Barcelona going to cope with the on fire Rooney and the brilliant Hernandez?

Seriously, their super slow mo defenders are going to be in for hell. Fergies got this one sorted.

 

I remember us saying that about Rooney and Ronaldo in 2009...and Barca had half their defence suspended for that game!

 

They didnt turn up to that game thats all.

Happens now and again.

We will beat the dog **** team called barcelona.

 

How do you stop messi? How do you stop Nani, Rooney etc... Messi will be bigged up so much in the pre-match final, and thus he will become a mere 7/10 on the day.

 

So now your in the final, how confidant are you?

 

Well, according to Shteve:

"For me, the key player United have to stop is Busquets. I've looked at the passing statistics and Busquets has the ball more than any other Barcelona player, even more than Xavi and Iniesta."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13288954.stm

So on that basis, I'm pretty confident!

In all seriousness, I think we stand a reasonable chance - Barca have shown they can be vulnerable to pressing and harrassing tactics like against Arsenal and Real. If we get our tactics right, and our big players perform, then we could surprise everyone. I'm just hoping Fletcher gets back to fitness asap and gets some game time in the next few weeks, as he could be crucial this year

 

You could mark Busquets out of the game with Park or Rooney like you did with Pirlo against Milan last year and get Fletcher to do the same thing to Xavi. That should stop them dominating possession to such an extent. Then hit quick long balls to your striker to exploit their high defensive line. Of course that will be much more difficult than I am making out but its the only way I can see you doing it.

 

Playing them in 09 without both Fletcher and Hargreaves was not ideal. Even now, Hargreaves remains absent and Fletcher is returning from illness and maybe short of match fitness and form.

We need Park and Valencia to work their socks off, both in attack and defence and double up on Barca players. Maybe a trio of Anderson, Fletcher and Giggs might provide the work rate and creative play needed to create chances against them.

I personally don't want Carrick anywhere near the team-sheet for the final. He has done nothing since his '09 horror show in the final to make me think he can compete against Barcelona.

 

Interesting finish to the season for you guys...massive game at Wembely of all places to finish it off as well!

itching to see what happens on Sunday, but in real terms the prem should be heading north...I can'ty call the Cl at the minute to be honest, I would probably have to say Barca at the minute but it will be a close game