Comments on: Manchester United Vs Barcelona Preview. There Will Be Goals.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:36:21 +0000

HU that’s a fantastic post, and consider yourself favourited.

I think United could play either of the Xavi-related options that you speak of, if they play Hargreaves in midfield with Carrick. This would give them plenty of bodies in the middle to stop Xavi playing. It does need a big game from Evra and Brown. If ever you United fans wanted the G-Nev back, it’d be about now.

What is interesting from that point of view is that it might well be Scholes playing in midfield not Carrick or Hargreaves, Sir Alex seems to be letting sentiment get in the way when it comes to Scholes and Giggs – he’s already promised them a start in the final if United get there. But I think in this particular game, maybe Carrick and Hargreaves would be better. Unless he imitates Barca’s formation and goes with all three, and puts Scholes in Deco’s position basically.

By: HU

HU — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:22:21 +0000

It was obvious to all watching the first leg that Barcelona dominated possession. They had 42′ 39” of ball possession compared to just 26′ 10” for Man Utd, possessing the ball for 61% of the time to Man Utd’s 39%. The home team stacked up 16 shots, 8 on target, compared to the away team’s 5 shots, 1 on target. And to all those saying Barcelona did not have any great chances, you are wrong. Samuel Eto’o missed a very good opportunity and later stayed on his feet when falling would have surely won his team a penalty, plus his team had plenty of free-kicks in very dangerous positions.
There are a number of approaches to taking on Barcelona, two of which revolve around Xavi: one is to attempt to prevent him from getting on the ball, leaving other areas open; another is to let him have the ball but limit his passing options by shutting down wing play and Deco in the attacking central role. The other options, which are too risky, are to play like Man Utd did in the first leg and keep 8 defenders on the field while letting Barcelona dominate possession or to attack them and have an end to end game, which again is too risky.
The approach to Xavi is the key. I think a better approach than packing the centre is to prevent passing options, something Schalke did, thus letting Barcelona have slightly more possession but removing their domination of possession and the effectiveness of this. Is this not packing the defence? No because it gives you more possession than you would otherwise have to place Barcelona under pressure, thus giving you more time to expose their defensive weaknesses, something Man Utd can do probably better than any other team in the world. Why is this better than preventing Xavi from getting the ball? Schalke showed one can have possession against Barcelona. Why take a risk against something that has worked? Imitate Schalke’s style – Man Utd have a much better attack than Schalke so them having similar possession to Schalke will translate into much more than what Schalke achieved.
Will Man Utd follow this strategy? It means a lot of clever patience for the central midfield, back-tracking for the left midfielder (Park)and heavy running for the full-backs, especially Evra on the left (Barcelona play predominantly down their right, event when Messi is not playing). Let us see on Tuesday night.
HU
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By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:40:15 +0000

I agree totally with you Mat. But they will hopefully be a bit more attacking at home, they normally are I guess.

By: Mat

Mat — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:01:00 +0000

I think what has happened is the constant media barrage has affected him and he also knows that United has the best squad( not the deepest, but the best playing currently)..so this year he is under an extra pressure to win something..so he is going all defensive (plus the fact that he could actually afford to loose the Chelsea game)..he does not have the usual player injury or any excuses this time…I am definitely disappointed the way United played in the first leg..

Now, I am not saying that putting an emphasis on defense is wrong but they played aweful..you have to at least try a lil to go and attack at least when Barca slows down a little…they never really came out of their half..whenever Ronaldo got the ball he had to run all the way to their goal and do it all alone…

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:09:30 +0000

Well what got me about his resting players, was that in his post-match rant at the Ref (unjustified in my view) he wondered why it happened in the “biggest game of the season” – it might have been irrelevant if he had actually played his best XI. If it was that big a game for him.

By: Mat

Mat — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:05:39 +0000

I think Ferguson has got his rotation wrong..There is no problem in kids of the age of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez playing 3 games in 6 days…if they have been rested properly beforehand,, I think the Milan game from last year has gone into Fergie’s brain big time and he insists on having everyone “fit”..throughout the run-in over the last month or so, he played all of them in most of the games and now he is resting them in big big games..I can just remember Ronaldo and Rooney playing 90 mns of the Villa game with score at 2-0 after 30mns…agreed they are fresher than this time last year..but all of them should have played/started the chelsea game on saturday..