Nani or Valencia to start at Wembley?

Originally Posted by Coracao

Wouldn't fancy Alves bombing on against Evra with Nani 'protecting' him atm.

Didn't help last time when Rooney was out there. Alves is best played when exploiting the space he leaves in behind, you just need a midfield that can escape the pressure of Barca's pressing game in the centre & high up the pitch. I'd tell Nani to stand on the halfway line & let Barca give it away - they play Messi as a false 9 now rather than the tandem right sided threat with Alves & Vidic or Rio being fully £#%&!ing fit would be a great help as well.

Nani's about the only one capable of shooting from distance as well.

10 goals, 20 assists - he was getting on for nigh on one or the other per game for a full calender year - two flying wingers >>>> than one. IMO.

If it's Madrid, £#%&! me, why wouldn't you want a tricky winger attacking the human red card that is Ramos?

Alves didnt play in the final in '09 did he? I thought he was suspended?

Originally Posted by dunk

Alves didnt play in the final in '09 did he? I thought he was suspended?

correct

puyol pique yaya toure sylvinho

i think

Originally Posted by dunk

Alves didnt play in the final in '09 did he? I thought he was suspended?

ffs.

I just remembered Rooney out there & the cluster £#%&! the rest of the game was.

Is this never talking about it again!

Originally Posted by Sloane

correct

puyol pique yaya toure sylvinho

i think

Quick edit!

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Quick edit!

dont know what you are talking about

Originally Posted by borsuk

well he's obviously going to be shit in every other final then, that's that settled.

surprised you're playing carrick, rooney and anderson, weren't they shit in Rome as well?

in walks the pleb.

the final isn't an away game for a start. in fact it'll be more like a home game. park is good but to beat Barca or Real you are going to need as many creative players on the pitch as possible imo.

it's an opinion, my opinion.

why don't you post your own and see how you get on.

:£#%&!er:

nft.

Not being funny el, but your opinion all season has tended to be that we are shit, all our players are shit and the manager has lost it, generally, when you have deigned to put in an appearance, obviously, which has tended to coincide with negative results or performances funnily enough

Originally Posted by dunk

Not being funny el, but your opinion all season has tended to be that we are shit, all our players are shit and the manager has lost it, generally.

Quite.

nft.

cheers el, might try posting my opinion on something at some point.

Originally Posted by El Chalten

it's an opinion, my opinion.

:£#%&!er:

vds
rafael
rio
vida
evra
vallers
carrick
giggs
nani
rooney
pea

anderson
berbatov
fletcher
to come off the bench if needed

Originally Posted by dunk

Not being funny el, but your opinion all season has tended to be that we are shit, all our players are shit and the manager has lost it, generally, when you have deigned to put in an appearance, obviously, which has tended to coincide with negative results or performances funnily enough

hardly posted this season. if utd play well then i say so. if not then i say so. it's a good job i was away for the fa cup semi against city. scholes would have got a nft from me.

nft.

Originally Posted by El Chalten

hardly posted this season. if utd play well then i say so. if not then i say so. it's a good job i was away for the fa cup semi against city. scholes would have got a nft from me.

nft.

he got a '£#%&! off' from me.

it was never a red

Originally Posted by borsuk

it was never a red

It was. Pissed me off as much as his sending off in Rome in '07.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...united-schalke

The mystery of Park Ji-sung has largely been resolved this season. Previously it was difficult to work out Sir Alex Ferguson's persistence with a player whose first touch was so unreliable it was often said his second touch was a sliding tackle, though he has gradually become Manchester United's go-to man in Europe.

Ferguson wants his players to perform in a slightly different way in the Champions League, with more emphasis on keeping possession and using the ball intelligently, and with more confidence the 30-year-old Park has come into his own. The player rather harshly left out of United's squad for the 2008 final in Moscow, after contributing fully to victories over Roma and Barcelona in the knockout rounds, is now one of the first names on European teamsheets.

"He's got the discipline, intelligence and football knowledge you need in the biggest games," Ferguson says. "Discipline is so much more important in the Champions League, and you need a slightly different type of discipline in Europe. Last season, for instance, one of the things that cost us was Rafael da Silva getting sent off in the return leg against Bayern Munich. There were other things but that was the killer for us. The boy was only 19 and he got carried away by the occasion. That can happen but there are some players you can normally rely on to keep a cool head and Park Ji-sung is one of them.

"When you pick teams for big games you need a core of discipline and he's one of the players who can give you that. And he's a fantastic professional. He moves and plays and moves again. That's the asset he's got. He doesn't watch what other players are doing with the ball, he gets himself into another position so he can be involved again. That's his value to us; he can be really important."

Park can also score goals – it was his winner against Chelsea that confirmed United's passage to a Champions League semi-final against Schalke – and in fairness the South Korean's all-round game has improved immeasurably in the six years he has been at United. The then 21-year-old announced himself with a splendid goal for his country against Portugal in the 2002 World Cup and, after impressing Guus Hiddink so much the manager took him back to PSV Eindhoven, a possible move to Chelsea fell through only because Manchester United made their interest known in 2005. Hiddink was clearly working on Roman Abramovich's behalf behind the scenes and Park was initially torn between a move to his dream club and respect for a coach he still describes as the biggest influence on his career.

"When I made up my mind for Manchester I felt I had betrayed Hiddink," Park says. "I knew he wanted me to go to Chelsea, so I found it difficult." If the story illustrates Park's ambition and strength of character, it also proves United were no slouches when it came to recognising talent and moving swiftly to make a capture. Not even Park's most ardent admirers would claim he was an instant success at Old Trafford but over the years he has proved well worth the modest outlay of £4m. "I wouldn't like to be without him," Ferguson says. "He is one of our most effective players and has been for a long time."

Park may need to be effective in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday, since United's record against German clubs in the Champions League is not a glorious one. Apart from the win they left rather late against Bayern Munich in 1999, Ferguson's team have made European exits at the hands of Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. "It's not a great record but there were different circumstances each time and on a couple of occasions we were unlucky," Ferguson says. "You can always expect German teams to be good professionals and to be competitive, but we've gathered plenty of experience too over the years. I've seen Schalke, they are a good side and obviously they have Raúl at the moment, so we will have to be aware of the threat in the final third."

Raúl apart, Ferguson can only be pleased with a semi-final draw that pits his side against the perceived underdogs of the final four and leaves Barcelona and Real Madrid to scrap it out so that only one Spanish giant can reach the final. "I don't want to sound complacent, we still need to get to the final ourselves, but I don't necessarily agree Barcelona are automatic favourites to win the other semi," he says. "Right from the time the draw was made I thought Real Madrid had a big chance. That 5-0 defeat in the league would have hurt them deeply, and the last couple of games have shown the gap between the sides is not really all that great. At a personal level I have no idea who is going to win out between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. They are both fantastic players yet quite different. My loyalty is with Ronaldo, though, as you might expect. He was an absolutely unbelievable player in the years he was at Manchester United."

I said it last night in the match thread but imagine what a player Parky would be if he had a first touch and a bit of balance

it's a decent article but

Previously it was difficult to work out Sir Alex Ferguson's persistence with a player

is complete %@#$&!s, as is the suggestion that he wasn't a really good player when he arrived.

Originally Posted by borsuk

it's a decent article but is complete %@#$&!s, as is the suggestion that he wasn't a really good player when he arrived.

Indeed - try telling any PSV fan that