The best team and best player in the world?

Messi's due his annual injury too

Torrente wrote:

Gone wrote:

Torrente wrote:

Glennegoor of Hysélink wrote:winning the league, yes, but the best team don't always win the Champions League. They should get to the semis though.

A 14 points lead means it's pretty obvious they're the best team in La Liga,

That means next to nothing this season. We're absolute garbage, yet we're second and 3 points clear from third if the score remains the same against Deportivo. Go figure.

No, you are the same as last year. Only this year Barca are awesome. Didn't they break the record for the most points in the first half of the season?

They only have 3 more points than us at this stage last season

I will say this again: Didn't they break the record for the most points in the first half of the season?

It is easier to destroy then it is to create which automatically makes it harder for Barcelona. Barca this year is totally different to last years in every way. However like I said at the time El classico raised more questions about them then us. In the biggest game of the year they choked. Not being able to break down a defence with Salgado-Metzelder with Guti in midfield should worry. If Man Utd were so scared to meet Barca last when they were in crap form I can only imagine how they would be when Barca is in great form. Same counts for Inter,Liverpool,Juve.

Nonetheless it will most certainly be interesting to watch if Barca draws a big team. Hopefully they would play well and then go out in the semis or something.

Where we so scared to face them last year?

Parks lives wrote:Where we so scared to face them last year?

I meant the way Man Utd play against them. I can only imagine that Man Utd were scared to attack because they were scared of Barca. Why else refrain from the normal playing style?

It wasn't a case of being scared. It's how we played alot of our CL games, sit back and contain and hit teams on the counter attack. The problem was we had less of the ball than usual and we missed Rooney in the second leg massively, which meant playing Ronaldo out of position.

I'll stick my neck out and say Man Utd won't repeat. I can just see Liverpool and Juventus meeting in the last 4 or the final.

The HuddFather wrote:I'll stick my neck out and say Man Utd won't repeat. I can just see Liverpool and Juventus meeting in the last 4 or the final.

In the new CL format, the winners have never got past the second round.

However Inter have looked very poor in Serie A, and boring too. MU's real task is breaking down a very compact and defensive side. If they can do that, and have Rio and Vidic (2nd leg) fit, then they should go through.

If Utd get past Inter the only team that can stop them would be Barca.

Parks lives wrote:It wasn't a case of being scared. It's how we played alot of our CL games, sit back and contain and hit teams on the counter attack. The problem was we had less of the ball than usual and we missed Rooney in the second leg massively, which meant playing Ronaldo out of position.

I saw Man Utds game in Cl and I can't remember seeing many where they were this defensive. It was one of the most defensive performances I have ever seen in Cl. While it is true that Man Utd nowadays play more defensive and counter attack against the big teams, it is still not normal for Rooney/Tevez to almost play full back at times.

Rooney played on the wing in the first leg as he was carrying an injury and we were short on players, he never even played in the second leg.

Parks lives wrote:Rooney played on the wing in the first leg as he was carrying an injury and we were short on players, he never even played in the second leg.

I was mostly talking about the first leg where I felt Man Utd were playing catennacio.My point isn't really about that anyway so pointless debating it. Im stimply saying that if the mentiond teams(Inter,Man Utd,Juve,Liverpool) pull that tactic Barca might struggle alot. I hope they would beat such tactics but I have my doubts.

I don't know how you can hold those beliefs and support Real Madrid over the last few seasons.

Parks lives wrote:I don't know how you can hold those beliefs and support Real Madrid over the last few seasons.

FFS why are you so hurt by anything said about Man Utd? I mean it seems like every time somebody mentions something negative about Man Utd you go all defensive.

Regarding your post, if my team plays defensive I should just stop supporting them? I would never do that but I hope Capello would get fired because of his style. Shuster was an idiot but we played our best football against the big teams in the league. Still think it hasn't been good enough which is why I wanted him fired. I think most Real Madrid fans are against defensive football which you can see in the thread where Torrente for example is getting ob Ramos' back for the team not being entertaining enough. Hopefully this explains it.

The clasico and a few other games this season, showed that no matter how a team tries to play us we will always find a way to score, at least two in most cases, so i don't see how that match raised more questions about us, if nothing it showed we have the stomach to find until the bitter end and not just play fancy football, but you are entitled to your opinion.

Messiah wrote:The clasico and a few other games this season, showed that no matter how a team tries to play us we will always find a way to score, at least two in most cases, so i don't see how that match raised more questions about us, if nothing it showed we have the stomach to find until the bitter end and not just play fancy football, but you are entitled to your opinion.

Can't remember which game. But Barca played away from home and the pitch was a mess - flooded and muddy. This was always going to affect Bara's play (Barca playing more of a passing game), but Barca were actually able to play more direct and won by a big margin. Just shows Pep has a plan B unlike Rijkaard.

Messiah wrote:The clasico and a few other games this season, showed that no matter how a team tries to play us we will always find a way to score, at least two in most cases, so i don't see how that match raised more questions about us, if nothing it showed we have the stomach to find until the bitter end and not just play fancy football, but you are entitled to your opinion.

Glad if that is what you got out of it. What I was saying was that if Barca struggle in such a mannor to play their style against a team with a crap defence and a fair few injuries then how will they do when up against even better organised teams that have more dangerous attacks(Ibra-Adri, Rooney-Ronaldo,Torres-Gerrard,Del Piero-Amauri).
For example Barca got their goal from a corner which these teams would be much better at defensively/offensively.

Super Madrid wrote:

Parks lives wrote:I don't know how you can hold those beliefs and support Real Madrid over the last few seasons.

FFS why are you so hurt by anything said about Man Utd? I mean it seems like every time somebody mentions something negative about Man Utd you go all defensive.

Regarding your post, if my team plays defensive I should just stop supporting them? I would never do that but I hope Capello would get fired because of his style. Shuster was an idiot but we played our best football against the big teams in the league. Still think it hasn't been good enough which is why I wanted him fired. I think most Real Madrid fans are against defensive football which you can see in the thread where Torrente for example is getting ob Ramos' back for the team not being entertaining enough. Hopefully this explains it.

I just think your talking rubbish. We played that way against most of the teams in the CL knock out stages, Barcelona were just better at keeping the ball away from us than Lyon, Roma and Chelsea.
Plus as I said we had a lot of knock and injuries at that point, especially compared to Barcelona as we were fighting on all fronts and needed our first team for virtually every game.

I feel vindicated in that.

@ Parky

Do you think you will play that way against Inter?

I think your midfield could well dominate Inter's midfield in terms of possesion if it wanted to.

Probably play like that against Inter, I highly doubt it'll be an end to end game. Probably in the away tie we'd rest Scholes and play Fletcher next to Carrick to destroy and Park on the wings to give us more energy in midfield with Rooney, Ronaldo and Berbatov in attack.

It was almost embarrassing watching Utd last season against Barca. I've never seen such as pussified performance from such a big team before, especially given the state Barca were in. Fair play, it got the job done, but my God it was painful to watch.

Calidad wrote:It was almost embarrassing watching Utd last season against Barca. I've never seen such as pussified performance from such a big team before, especially given the state Barca were in. Fair play, it got the job done, but my God it was painful to watch.

Another element is the mentality. Manchester United’s recent record in the Champions League has been below standard (the low point being the disastrous group campaign of 05/06). Getting to the semi-final, SAF seemed to not want to fall at the same hurdle as he did the season prior so he adopted a more dogmatic approach to the game – for him the aim was to get to the final (so the ends justified the means). Of course he drew some criticism for it from some elements (in particular some purist). He could have gone for a more attacking approach, but I’m guessing for him the prize was too much to risk, saying that there were some good spells at the Camp Nou albeit not much. I don’t think it was the case of being ‘scared’ of Barcelona but being fearful of what could be if the game was lost.

Hopefully if the two teams do meet again the approach will be different. He has the players to give Barcelona a good game, let’s hope that is the case.

Pretty much as Rai said.

I think we've been fairly unlucky in the last two CL semi finals as well that we've faced two teams who had nothing to fight for except the CL, where we having to play our strongest teams in every game at least twice a week and the opposition were only gearing for the CL games. Some of the "neutrals" don't seem to recognise that.

If Ronaldo had scored that pen then the game might have been completely different, Barca might have got cained.

Batman wrote:If Ronaldo had scored that pen then the game might have been completely different, Barca might have got cained.

Or Utd could have played more even negatively to protect the away goal.

Please don't start with IF-s.

Barca were playing like pussies in the league. They finished 3rd at the end of the season, 18 points behind Real Madrid.

1-0 down to Man Utd after 2 mins, you don't know what this would have done to their confidence, the crowd might have got on the players back, etc...

But instead the players raised their game and played like one of the best teams in Europe.

This is a quality team:

I don't care how we played. Destroyed Porto and they get a lucky last minute goal after some dissalowed joke decision against Man Utd, and a few other years where the cl should have been won. So if playing that way guaranteed a win then so be it. 1-0 and a missed pen and another clear pen denied vs what? Barca barely had a fucking chance.

They are great this year and i hope we get them in the semi final again so there can be two games.

Batman wrote:Barca were playing like pussies in the league. They finished 3rd at the end of the season, 18 points behind Real Madrid.

1-0 down to Man Utd after 2 mins, you don't know what this would have done to their confidence, the crowd might have got on the players back, etc...

But instead the players raised their game and played like one of the best teams in Europe.

This is a quality team:

Valdes

Zambrotta . . Marquez . . Milito . . . Abidal

Toure
Xavi . . . . . . Deco

Messi . . . . . . . . . . . . . Iniesta
Eto'o

On paper it looks really good, but we know the reality isn't true.

Zambrotta is completely wrong for that system.

Abidal and Marquez were having absolutely awful seasons.

Deco, well, I'm not going to go there.


Not saying that it was a team that had no chance, but I think you'll remember clearly most of us said before the game that Man. Utd. were massive favourites. And I'm surprised you call it "raising their game". Barça played well, but hardly like one of the best teams in Europe. I also remember posting my surprise at the time about the tactics you used, because we were clearly there for the taking if you showed some aggression, self-belief, and took the game to us, taking advantage of your better pace, strength, and fitness.

That's what suprised me as well Kas. I thought Barca were there for the taking, and actually thought they could be in for a hammering.

The only players showing any sort of form from the above team at that time were Iniesta and Toure, possibly Milito. It was pretty much Messi's first game in a couple of months, and the rest of the team were shit. Still like I say, Utd had a gameplan and it worked, I was just expecting them to really take it to Barca.

Deco showed what the team was thinking imo. He was only interested in this game for the whole fucking season. If Man Utd went for Barca i think Messi and Etoo on the counter was far to big a risk. Barca kept the ball better, the tactics maybe were negative but spot on to win the game for me.