How Fletcher Can Bring down Barcelona

People leaving Rooney on the bench for a Champion's League Final.

The ONLY issue is whether he starts up-front on his own or in the hole behind Hernandez.

you do realise that saying 'fact' after an opinion doesn't actually make it so?

what you're talking about isn't anything about the players' innate abilities, then. what you're saying is that they're coached to play in a certain way, which is a different way to the way united play. fair enough, they are better at that but it's not something we try to do, our style of play is different. i've got no idea why that equates to 'technically better' tbph.

Originally Posted by Ole

Rooney's definitely starting... he's the best footballer in the side, and because he's got everything he can play an effective role in various positions. If we're only playing one striker Fergie would want him up there. If we're playing two strikers we want him behind the other. He'll even play him wide if the tactics call for it.. but there's no chance he won't start.

The way to beat Barca isn't "to go at them" ffs. It's simply a fact that as a team they're miles better technically than our lads, and they will have most of the ball for 90 minutes. Their threats need to be neutralised and we need to have an effective counterattacking strategy. Discussion should start from there imo...

disagree. it's neither his favourite position nor his best. he'd be back in midfield within 10 minutes playing hollywood switches out to players who need him further up the pitch. the danger is less of rooney being isolated on his own up front and more of him isolating whoever he's supposed to be playing with up there

agree there's no chance he won't start though, obviously. he was injured in moscow and rome and at home to munich over the last 3 seasons but never left out. if he's fit he should of course start the game at wembley. the record shows that his inclusion probably isn't as crucial as you make out though.

Originally Posted by Neo

People leaving Rooney on the bench for a Champion's League Final.

The ONLY issue is whether he starts up-front on his own or in the hole behind Hernandez.

Mental isn't it.

Tbf, it is only Throb so you can't take it seriously.

I think he's posted about 15,000 times today & they're all pretty much the same post - "Rooney can't play in the hole...Rooney can't play here, there or anywhere else. It is infact a myth that....blah, blah, blah.."

Rooney not starting, £#%&!ing hell

Originally Posted by Zorg

Rooney not starting, £#%&!ing hell

that's £#%&!ing typical of our luck. the whole world's against us. what's happened now ffs?

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

disagree. it's neither his favourite position nor his best. he'd be back in midfield within 10 minutes playing hollywood switches out to players who need him further up the pitch. the danger is less of rooney being isolated on his own up front and more of him isolating whoever he's supposed to be playing with up there

agree there's no chance he won't start though, obviously. he was injured in moscow and rome and at home to munich over the last 3 seasons but never left out. if he's fit he should of course start the game at wembley. the record shows that his inclusion probably isn't as crucial as you make out though.

no rooney ffs

Originally Posted by Part 36 Offer

no rooney ffs

i mentioned him at least once in the post you precious @#%&!

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

i mentioned him at least once in the post you precious @#%&!

Originally Posted by Sparky***

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/footba...article/30337/

Fletcher needs to mark Xavi, not Messi. Passing combos from the last Barca/Real game courtesy of ZM twitter....

Top 6 was : Xavi to Messi 25, Xavi to Busquets 24, Alves to Xavi 23, Xavi to Iniesta 21, Busquets to Xavi 20, Messi to Xavi 19.

Stop Xavi, stop Barca. Mourinho put Pepe on him in the Copa Del Rey and it worked well, and was also effective in the SF 1st leg until the sending off.

Originally Posted by soup_nazi

Fletcher needs to mark Xavi, not Messi. Passing combos from the last Barca/Real game courtesy of ZM twitter....

Top 6 was : Xavi to Messi 25, Xavi to Busquets 24, Alves to Xavi 23, Xavi to Iniesta 21, Busquets to Xavi 20, Messi to Xavi 19.

Stop Xavi, stop Barca. Mourinho put Pepe on him in the Copa Del Rey and it worked well, and was also effective in the SF 1st leg until the sending off.

About half of them passes are them tippy tappy one-twos with each other from 2 yards.

Originally Posted by borsuk

you do realise that saying 'fact' after an opinion doesn't actually make it so?

you mean none of this is true?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOaZYhTd2BU

Originally Posted by History

FWIW, messi wasnt even the game. The header was really the only thing he did all game apart from blast a shot over. (of course a crucial thing, but he didnt really perform)

Iniesta was the one who gave the masterclass that night.

In all seriousness, were you at the match?

Iniesta was their best player marginally over Messi in a match we didn't create a chance after the 5th minute to Giggs half assed sliced straight after their 2nd.

Messi (as much as dislike his whole demeanour) was shit hot that night.


But were going to beat them this time. Just ask your abu mates what their gut feeling is. Drop the bravado.

Originally Posted by Stickman

In all seriousness, were you at the match?

Iniesta was their best player marginally over Messi in a match we didn't create a chance after the 5th minute to Giggs half assed sliced straight after their 2nd.

Messi (as much as dislike his whole demeanour) was shit hot that night.


But were going to beat them this time. Just ask your abu mates what their gut feeling is. Drop the bravado.

why the rhetoric? it was a £#%&!ing great chance.

best bit for me "with Hargreaves incapacitated"

like he's been shot or something

Originally Posted by waynes ear's

best bit for me "with Hargreaves incapacitated"

like he's been shot or something

i think stepped on a land mine would be more accurate.

Originally Posted by Stickman

In all seriousness, were you at the match?

Iniesta was their best player marginally over Messi in a match we didn't create a chance after the 5th minute to Giggs half assed sliced straight after their 2nd.

Messi (as much as dislike his whole demeanour) was shit hot that night.


But were going to beat them this time. Just ask your abu mates what their gut feeling is. Drop the bravado.

Yeah i was at the match, i didnt feel any threat from messi at all (but ronaldo was the master at doing £#%&! all for 70 minutes and popping up with two goals). Xavi and Iniesta and even Henry had O'shea all over the place.

[SIZE="4"]How do you stop Lionel Messi? Sir Alex Ferguson might just know!


Imagine having won every single honour club football has to offer; a total of 46 trophies north and south of the border, countless individual accolades, an OBE, CBE, a knighthood - in fact every conceivable prize except Rear of the Year.

Now imagine just how tedious it must be, having amassed that Aladdin’s Cave as a testament to your ability, to then hear all and sundry still bang on about how they could do a better job than you.

This happens to Sir Alex Ferguson every single day of his life. When he turns on the television, opens his newspaper, listens to the car radio, orders dinner at a local restaurant or jumps in a cab, he is besieged with ‘expert advice’.

The destination of the Premier League title is yet to be settled and the Champions League is up for grabs against Barcelona, but that hasn’t offered him any respite. Instead it has prompted an even greater avalanche of ‘helpful’ guidance to crash around him.

My undoubted favourite appeared in one of yesterday’s papers under the headline ‘This is Your Task - Stop Messi’.

Yes, the essential piece of insight offered to the game’s most successful manager was that he might like to consider taking the ability of the world’s best player into account when that important Wembley date comes around.

It is the football equivalent of putting a sticker on a packet of peanuts saying ‘Warning: May Contain Nuts’. Other suggestions scattered through the media were less bleedin’ obvious, but equally superfluous.

Ferguson was advised to play a 3-5-2 formation, or 4-4-1-1 or even 4-6-0. He was told to launch an all-out attack and forget Barca’s strengths; pressure the centre halves; move the ball wide and exploit the full backs or expose Barcelona’s weakness in the air.

Others suggested United should try not to foul Barca too often; wait for the Catalan club to pass themselves dizzy and strike in the latter stages; or use Wayne Rooney in midfield, on the wing, through the middle, or all of the above.

Ferguson was advised to man- mark Lionel Messi with Darren Fletcher, or Park Ji-sung, or Ryan Giggs. To man-mark Xavi, too. And Andres Iniesta. In fact, why not mark all of their players throughout the entire match, ditch the penalty shootout and simply ask Sergio Busquets and Nani to settle the Champions League with a forward roll competition, since it’s what they do best? (I admit that last one was my idea.)

Seriously, when did we all become such tactical masterminds that we assumed a figure like Ferguson (below) might require our counsel? When did we suspect there was an innovative ploy he has not been smart enough to consider after more than half a century in football?

And does anyone really think there are aspects of the game that Carlo Ancelotti cannot grasp at Chelsea at the age of 51. His wandering left eyebrow could do a better job than most of us.

I can drive a car, but I would never assume Lewis Hamilton might need me to tell him to put his foot down - and try not to crash.

I don’t labour under the illusion that Heston Blumenthal might benefit from my tips on how to serve up decent pasta either. ‘What you need to do, Heston, is buy some spaghetti sauce. Heat it up. Now here’s the clever bit - you then add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning! I’ll bet you hadn’t thought of that, Heston. Am I right? Eh?’

Yet we see no contradiction in doing the equivalent in football. These days any fool can express a #@&%!amamie opinion - as this column regularly demonstrates - and expect it to be considered with the reverence equal to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

That is why football is the world’s favourite game, and the sport we all love, hate, argue over and obsess about.

But, while I might feel qualified to criticise Ferguson’s approach to referees, or the media, or some frippery associated with the football circus, with his record I’ll generally leave the tactics to him - unless he plays John O’Shea at full back, or Dimitar Berbatov as a lone striker, or . . . ahem.

This week Ferguson was asked if he would seek advice from Jose Mourinho on how to beat Barcelona. Flushed with the achievement of reaching his third European final in four years, he declined to point out Mourinho had just lost and reply in a manner that forced me to seek alternatives to the asterisk key just for variety.

Instead, he said: ‘We’ll take the information because Jose is very helpful that way. But it’s not as if we haven’t seen them before ourselves.’

What he really wanted to say was: ‘What the $*£&%@! hell does Jose know that I don’t?’ — and he would be right.

Regardless of the outcome of United against Chelsea, or the clash between United and Barcelona, everybody is a genius when that final whistle blows. If the result doesn’t go as we predicted it is because the manager did not apply that one, vital piece of tactical brilliance we had been shouting out all night long.

We are all wise after the event. We are all like that second piece of paper warning you the first piece of paper could give you a paper cut.

good article from des kelly

Wise after the event? Sounds like someone on this thread.