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Manchester United Thread

Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

We sorely missed a Fletcher/Hargreaves type player today, as well as the fact that too many of our players didn't turn in the kind of performance that they needed to in such an important game.

Ah well, there's always next year!
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

if Xavi and Iniesta had been on our team and not theirs, we'd have probably won. That's not meant to sound like the rest of our team outplayed the rest of Barca, cos they didn't at all and we were humbled man for man. Obviously the rest of the Barca side were also immense, but those two were the ones that were responsible for destroying Utd today, and our midfield was severely lacking. Consequently we didn't get going at all, and Rio and Nemanja were forced to hoof the ball forwards for much of the game. Hopefully SAF learns much from this.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

nice try guys
the first few min were frightening, but the eto'o goal settled barca nerves and allowed them to play possession

a bit rich Ronaldo telling Puyol to get up lol
also Scholes with a trademark tackle on Busquets immediately after being subbed in
o yea and Vidic foul on Messi near the whistle totally unnecessary

I think with the physical presence you guys have, Fergie could've played a more dominant game ala Hiddink. Watching you guys I just couldn't help thinking how Rafa would've completely nullified their attack. Anyway there goes making history and what united is all about and what not! Cheers!
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

seek - we don't have anywhere near the physical presence of Chelsea. Mikel and Essien are ruddy great things who can dominate the midfield as part of a trio with Lampard. Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso are much the same. Anderson and Carrick just don't compare, they are capable of winning the ball but they aren't capable of claiming the middle as their own. Consequently Xavi and Iniesta ran riot, giving Mess, Henry and co license to run riot and plop on us from above.

If Hargreaves and Fletcher had been available they'd have been guaranteed to start, quite simply.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

We pressurised them really well during the first 10 minutes and looked really up for it, and had Barca on the back foot. But then we conceded a soft goal which knocked the wind out of our sails a bit and never recovered.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Great try by the lads, We were the better side for the first 10 and let in a sloppy goal early on which just completely ruined our game plan. After that Barcelona were allowed to run the show and they did just that. Iniesta and Xavi are both amazing, Messi didn't have a great game but scored a quality header.

Overall we lost to a great side and I think this side will be even hungrier to get to the final next year. Not sure why the Liverpool lads are trying to get digs in, They've had to resort to celebrating being the first side to only lose twice and STILL not win the league. :))
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

drekkard said:
Henry really is NOT our maximum threat. Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are by far more important players and definitely the key ones. If you manage to stop them, half the trophy is yours. That doesn't mean Heanry and Etoo are not dangerous, but they are finishing plays, while the three small ones are the ones that create everything.
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I was telling this to you before the match. I have seen all the season how they destroy every team and I've seen a lot of Man Utd matches this season, and I knew possession in midfield would determine so much.

Man Utd played offensively and brave, and went for the match from start. I really :APPLAUD: you.

I didn't like Puyol diving in a certain moment, at all and didn't like Vidic today, he was so nervous since the etoo goal! I think Rooney really put all the effort but was alone.

Also I really think Ferguson was not very inspired. Giggs, Park and Anderson in the starting eleven is something I wasn't expecting at all.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Giggs, Park and Anderson were our most in-form midfield at the time. And Carrick of course but he's actually good at his role. The other three mentioned above were there because we didnt have anyone better at the time. Scholes had hardly played this season and his tackling would have let us down. Anderson had been good but only when he's playing just behind the strikers. Its always been his best position but cuz he's been able to play deeper and do well against weaker opposition, the manager must have assumed he'd do the same against Barca (Xavi and Iniesta arent just any midfield). Park was in there because he missed last years final and for his goal and performance against Arsenal. But lets be honest, his goal against Arsenal came from a defensive blunder and as for his work rate, that can be matched by Tevez too.
Our best midfield would have been Fletcher, Hargreaves and Carrick. All three can hold the midfield with discipline but you'd also get Hargreaves' battling in midfield, Carrick's passing from deep areas to create counter attacks and Fletcher's timing and movement around the pitch. That would have also left Scholes and Anderson on the bench for extra strength whenever its needed. I'm not gonna use it as an excuse for our loss cuz Barca didnt have Abidal and Dani Alves but its still an excuse for why we were poor yesterday. Maybe a full strength Barca can still beat a full strength United but the match would definately be a lot closer if it happened again IMO.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

FreMM said:
Matt, what does that have to do with anything? As if there are no brainless hooligans in Istanbul or London?
Get the facts straight, a lot of Man U fans broke the prohibition and started causing havoc.
There are always 2 parties in cases like these and I find it downright unfair if you were to blame the city or its inhabitants for it.
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Well it's a fact FreMM that EVERY time an English club has been to Rome, a fan has been stabbed and there has been trouble.

United, Liverpool, Arsenal and even Middlesbrough have had fans stabbed.

It's a city known for violent fans, and just to rub it in, it has a running track around the pitch, so it makes absolutely no sense to have the final in such a situation.

I'm not saying the English fans are innocent in any way, I just think UEFA are incompetent wankers when it comes to things like this.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

A little surprised at the result, but I think Barcelona were a level up or two United. No shame in admitting that, because that Barcelona team is just as good as any I've seen.

You didn't have anyone who could get hold of Xavi-Iniesta, and their pressing was absolutely immense, which is where you lost out IMO.

Meh, you still had a great season, but let's keep this quadruple talk shut away. Never helps.

And you guys need a midfielder.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Thoughts:
The bad things
I'm not a football manager. I'm certainly not the best that has ever lived (Sir Fergie). But I would have thought maybe telling the boys to put pressure on the man with the ball against hte best pass and move team in the world would have been a good idea. What the hell were we doing? Standing off of them, allowing them to move behind us...who's plan was that?

We didn't show up. Ando, Giggs and Park were absolutely woeful. And therefore there was nothing for Rooney and Ronaldo to do. As good as those two are, they can't do it all themselves against 5 men.

We never laid seige. We never hinted at that 99 spirit of alright, it's our time to score. We went down 2-0 and gave up. The rest of the match was played at walking pace.

Puyol. What a disgrace. Is it something about Barcelona right backs? He won the Drogba award for gaining over 10 minutes of wasted time for his team, all by himself through feigning injury. Get up you girly-man.

Ji-Sung Park is a great athelete. Reads the game of football well. Tries really hard. But his attacking skill with a football places him somewhere behind (deep breath): Nani, Berba, Tevez, Macheda and Welbeck. I'm tempted to add Fabio and Rafael into that. So in the final of the CL, why is he playing? Sympathy? Fergie - wtf?!

Fergie played the formation everyone expected, and it failed spectacularly. I was absolutely sure there would be a twist, but we set up to neutralise Barca. That's not the United way. That's not using our best strengths. It was just negative, and you know what? It was cowardly. That’s what I’m most annoyed about. That with the team we have, we’d show that much fear.

Vidic has had an outstanding year, but made 3 big mistakes. Fortunately the two against Pool didn’t hurt us in the end, but last night’s was unforgivable. Everyone who has ever played knows you show the attacker wide, not into the middle. What an idiot.

The good things
We made it to the semis or finals of every competition we entered this season, played more games than any other club in Europe, won the league and some other cups and occasionally looked really quite good.

Hopefully Fergie will spend the summer thinking about his cowardice, his new found negativity. Yes, it works for Rafa and it worked for Jose – but that’s because they have mastered the negative arts. Fergie has never been good at it – got lucky last year in the CL semi. I remember when the ‘fab four’ were mentioned I just wondered as a defense which one you double team. You can’t double team them all, and they all need it. By only playing two of them, one out wide where he’s useless, you give them a very easy job. All I want is for Fergie to grow some balls again. Barcelona, with their depleted defense, would have been genuinely worried had we at least put out 3 attacking players. It would have forced the midfield to think about their defensive duties. But instead we basically said – alright you guys attack and we’ll defend. It was awful, AWFUL tactically.

If we’d won, what would the players be playing for next year?


Ronaldo tried really quite hard, and deserves credit. If messi hadn't scored, I actually thought Ronnie was more impressive on an individual level.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Ronaldo was pretty selfish last night, especially in the first 10 mins when you had the possesion and he took shots everytime he got a sight of goal, I'd have been fuming if I was Rooney. As I said to my Manc workmate last night, I think Ronaldo got sucked into the media hype battle with Messi and he wanted to do everything himself, he wanted the limelight. The Manc agreed as well I should add in case anyone thinks I'm only saying that as a Liverpool fan.

Everyone is going on (not necessarily on here as you're a knowledgeable bunch for the most part) about Utd were rubbish in midfield and Ferguson HAS to buy a class midfielder but they forgot that Hargreaves is a class midfielder and would've done good for you last night.

I think you're really missing Hargreaves to be honest, and last night more than ever.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

@ Dags - Been saying all season Hargo has been a big miss, especially when everyone and their dog said Chelsea would have won everything had they had Essien. similar drive those two. But alas, we haven't had him and we may never have him again (who knows how he'll come back from injury). So bottom line is our midfield wasn't good enough, but it's certainly worth enough, so what do we do?
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Who's the guy on Talksport in the mornings? Alan Parry? He was basically pointing at your midfielders and saying you don't have a Gerrard/Lampard who can tackle back, control the game, and score goals and went through each player saying how none of your players fit that criteria.

He was discussing this with a caller and the caller basically said who is available who fits that criteria though? And that's the problem, unless you pay a LOT of money. Parry mentioned Diego going to Juve but I don't think he's a player who tackles back as much as needed is he?

Otherwise I don't really know, but you'd need to spend big to get that kind of player. As Parry said, Tevez for £25m or a Gerrard/Lampard midfielder which you lacked last night?
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

It's funny, this time last year we were set up to not need that kind of player. We played with essentially two holding midfielders that shielded the back 4, and let the front 4 basically attack from out wide. It worked a treat, plus hid the deficencies of Carrick/Scholes (ie, you can easily run behind them, and they're slow as all hell). But for some reason this year Fergie has opted to copy Rafa, and use lots of players in strange positions (Rooney on the right, Ronaldo through the middle, Berba as some kind of weird AMF/SS thing, Nani as a boot polisher) plus switch to the much vaunted 4-3-3. And it doesn't work for us.

Hopefully this loss will show him that we need a return to what got us to where we are - play your best players in their best positions and see how it goes.

I think our squad is good enough to compete on all fronts again next year, and just really hope Fergie lets Rooney be a central striker, lets Ronaldo be a winger, and lets the team get on with things.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

DagsJT said:
Who's the guy on Talksport in the mornings? Alan Parry? He was basically pointing at your midfielders and saying you don't have a Gerrard/Lampard who can tackle back, control the game, and score goals and went through each player saying how none of your players fit that criteria.

He was discussing this with a caller and the caller basically said who is available who fits that criteria though? And that's the problem, unless you pay a LOT of money. Parry mentioned Diego going to Juve but I don't think he's a player who tackles back as much as needed is he?

Otherwise I don't really know, but you'd need to spend big to get that kind of player. As Parry said, Tevez for £25m or a Gerrard/Lampard midfielder which you lacked last night?
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Mr Parry does spout some nonsense, funny but nonsense, but he's spot on Manchester were out done in the middle...
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Unlucky chaps. I'm sure there will be a lot of finger pointing about which players aren't good enough and which players Man Utd need to buy etc etc, but at this level it's about who turns up on the night and on that score Barca were inspired last night. Some people have already mentioned the absences of Hargreaves and Fletcher, but you could have played 11 'spoilers' and you still would have struggled to deal with some of the movement and one touch passing on show.

Barca aren't the flawless side the press are bleating about this morning, but Xavi, Iniesta, Eto'o, Puyol, Messi, Piqué were all outstanding when it mattered most (although the captain showed some of his less desirable traits in almost equal measure, but hey, that's the game).

Meanwhile, Anderson was a passenger, Carrick's distribution was way off, Park was all endeavour and no product, Rooney probably had his worst game this season and most crucially IMO, the hitherto defensive spine of Ferdinand and Vidic were wobbly to say the least.

Both goals were from their mistakes and thus largely were their faults. Vidic was twisted inside out buy Eto'o and he is a slippery customer but why show him inside like that? Messi's header was well placed but how on earth did he find himself unmarked in the box by Ferdinand? He's about 4'9. That was pub team defending and unbelievable to watch given the occasion and players involved.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Top post Joystick,summed it up really.

We didnt showed up on our biggest match of the season and this is a huge disappointment.Its heartbreaking to see Barca's slick passing in the middle,totally overriding our non-existent midfield.I would have been gracious in defeat if we had given everything last night.We didnt and thats why Barca were deserved winners.

Vidic was too soft for their first goal and his lack of speed was cruelly exposed again.Rio carelessly stayed back when the line pushed up before Xavi put that cross in for Messi.Thats a schoolboy error really,even if he was the last man to push out,he should have been a lot closer to Messi.Missed a destroyer in the middle in Fletcher or Hargreaves.Anderson who was supposed to do that job bottled it.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Apparently Ronaldo has had a pop at Fergies tactics, that will go down well. What are you lot going to do with Berbatov, the guy looked like a fish out of water.
I know he only came on as sub but my god...
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Nick Cave said:
Apparently Ronaldo has had a pop at Fergies tactics, that will go down well. What are you lot going to do with Berbatov, the guy looked like a fish out of water.
I know he only came on as sub but my god...
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He'll go to Milan, remember where you heard it first.....
About the game, very dissapointed. Was really hoping on a heads-on collision but MU were just to weak. No grinta, hunger or passion and as said in previous posts too much space for decisive Barca players...
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

I think we need to give him a season of starts, and see if he can hack it. Supremely talented, proven in our league - just needs some consistency. Think that's true for most of the team to be honest. Tinkerman Fergie...
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Some of you lot are overreacting, We got beaten because Barca were better than us, No shame in admitting that, We lost in "that" way because some of our most important players didn't turn up. Ronaldo IMO wasn't selfish at all, most of the time he would get the ball run 5-10 yards and look up to see 4-5 Barca shirts and no support. I think we missed Fletch no doubt but we at the end of the day Barca were the better side. Ronaldo was right to be played CF, he's not a winger anymore but more a "Wide Forward" One thing that is pissing me off though is even England have figured out where to play Rooney but we haven't, PLAY HIM BEHIND THE CF TO CAUSE HAVOC!

I think we need to play to our strengths more but its difficult to do that against Barca. I think we might see a big signing now. Maybe Ribery but we'll see.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

Just returned from the trip now.. I was so gutted! Good positive start with the Ronaldo FK and we were basically dominating them, then came the sucker punch as we failed to shut down Messi.. I do not want to discuss anymore......


The things I do for Manchester United...

A positive I can take from the trip was tho I appeared on Sky Sports News Wednesday morning! I was the guy wearing the blue CL shirt with the World Club Champions Badge, where the reporter was live from the Champions Festival at the Collussem!
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

I was really pleased to see Ronaldo trying, and you could tell it was more of a personal thing than out to help his team, but still he showed he is capable of terrorizing the best teams, he blasted past people at times but then the numbers game caught up with him and the rest of the team did shit all to help him out.
 
Re: Manchester United Supporters Thread.

The biggest positive for me is that this loss hurts and the last time it was like this was Milan 07 and im sure the players feel the same way. Im sure this will really spark that hunger back into the team, the aim for 19 and the CL for next season will be as important as ever.
 
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