Manchester United’s progression to the Champions League final, to be held at Wembley on 28 May, has surprised many; perhaps even some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s players. Despite the relative lack of ‘stardust’ in the United squad, in a season of turmoil surrounding star player Wayne Rooney, United has exceeded many expectations, including those of this website. Indeed, Ferguson must take huge credit for United’s progress to the final, with the team now greater than the sum of its parts.
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s “passing carousel,” to use Ferguson’s colourful description, has been described as the best football on the planet. It was far too good for United in the 2009 final in Rome. Some pundits have gone further and claim that the Catalan giant now boasts the best football team ever.
But in a season of surprises will United pull off another one and beat Barça in the final?
[poll id=”62″]
Seriously doubt it. We have a chance but I’m putting my monies on Barca to make up for the pain.
Then when United win, your joy will be tempered by the hole you ahave burned in your pocket.
I have a feeling you might snatch it but in all honesty, since Rome in 2009, they have got a lot better and you have got worse. But, you never know, an early goal might change it.
Speaking of shit, Chelsea have a fucking lot of work to do
I don’t think one can defend and yet win on the counter against Barca. Their central mids are too strong and will dominate ours, United will have to attack in the wings. We have no other option.
The safest line up will be
———VDS———
Fab, Rio, Vidic, Evra
Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park,
——– Rooney———
Hernandez
An ambitious move will be having Nani instead of Park; we shouldn’t be worried about Alves, if anything we must use it to our advantage to attack the left.
Giggs and Park can attack Alves, Giggs can drift to the left, so I left out Nani.
But this is Fergie’s preferred team against the big teams lately (Giggs was injured against Arsenal)… so it may be an obvious tactic. Fergie may mix it up, if he does, I hope he goes 3-5-2 like some people suggest..
A 3-5-2 is interesting, with Rio perhaps as the sweeper. The risk here is that the team won’t be used to this formation.
But so won’t Barca and us being the weaker team will need to take risks like this to win.
My 3-5-2
———-VDS————
—Smalling, Rio, Vidic—-
Fabio——————-Evra
———-Carrick———-
—–Park———Giggs—-
————–Rooney——
——-Hernandez———-
Agree with the first line up, albeit using a 4-2-3-1. I think Messi may need to be man marked by Park, and if Fletcher’s fit there’s a few good reasons for having him over Carrick. Hernandez musy play and we have to push Barcelona back and press.
No
But we’ll have a good go
As long as there is no Anderson or Fletcher we can’t go too wrong from our best lineup.
Exactly. Need to pack out the midfield with 80% graft and a little bit of brains.
We will win, we have to.
There’s been a lot of bullshit defeatism on this site for a while now, with many here bordering on the premise that we should just throw in the towel and ask UEFA to accept our withdrawal from the final for fear of a tanking.
It takes two teams to participate in a final, and if football has proven one thing it’s that anything can happen in one game – even against the seemingly impossible.
Always remember folks – NOTHING is impossible.
We will win this final!!
of course we can win, but they can too, however I think we will.
Can’t decide whether both Roon and Hern or a 5 man midfield, I think Rooney and Hernadez with Giggs, park, Valencia and either fletch or carrick. Not too sure about rb, maybe SAF will trust in O’Shea
Were going to win this “Payback time Bitches”
———VDS———
A Twin, Rio, Vidic, Evra
Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park,
——– Rooney———
Hernandez
Prob the best line up all things considered. Prob not enough to win the game though. We are relying on them having a bad night or getting injuries before the big day. Not pessimistic, just realistic – this Barca team is one of the best of all time.
Good post.
Especially coming from a spam artist like yourself Pikey.
You mean “exceeded” not “superseded” ;o)
United will win according to the laws of karma.
Last time Barca beat United.
So this time United will beat Barca.
This will happen in order to ensure the scales of karma are balanced. 🙂
Possibly, just possibly, there is such thing as justice.
i believe.
BTW, is Rafael fit?
Should have
VDS
Rafael-Vida-Rio-Evra
Fabio – Park [to break the effing carousel]
Valencia-Rooney-Nani
Sweeeeeet Pea
^^^^ Lol that’s a good lineup. Why have central midfielders? Anyway ours will go missing against theirs.
fergie will drop hernanshite for fletchshite and we’ll lose
Hahaha you’re such a tool
lol you’re such a tool
In 2008 i’ve been to the CF final in Moscow.
An Asian guy in a red t-shirt was sitting nearby; he said: ‘I’m from Korea!’ And then, to emphasize that he had smth in common with United, he added:’Park Ji-Sung!’
We had lots of ‘stardust’ on the field that day.
i bet he would be speaking about his native country with more pride now as Park’s role is miles more significant today.
Hello, mate, if you read this by any chance :))
CF final = CL final, typo
The team needs to
– Go 4-4-2
– Go aggressive, retain the ball when we have it, and stay in space for each other
– Score early
– Pressurise them when they are in possession
– Get a little lucky
I think we can do 3 / 5 of those, because they are within our control. The rest? We’ll see.
-Ben
I hope we blitz the opening 10 minutes like we did against Chelsea
Start at a fierce pace – one touch, pace, power, movement off the ball etc. and nick a goal
Then it will be game on
I think all the optimistic people around here are going to be slapped silly by the harsh reality of this United team. And that is: Barca are way above us, both individually and as a team.
Errr! What the man said, unfortunately.
Well then, not to rehash what I’ve already said but let’s just fucking forget about it then
ffs
Park will be dropping inside and getting busy all over Iniesta / Xavi carousel. Carrick should drop deeper to pick up Messi floating around in front of the back four. When not in possession, Rooney should drop a little deeper to get all over Busquets and pressurise there. Valencia will ensure that his flank is compact and difficult to get through, and Giggs will be disciplined in the middle trying to pick up players moving.
What we shouldn’t do is expect to go there and be beat – if we have a plan in possession and without possession, staying compact and proactive in defence and plan to transition rapidly this Barcelona team – quite rightly rated as one of the best club teams of all time – can be beaten. We go there as underdogs and that’s not a problem in my opinion.
I hope they do show up expecting to walk all over us, etc. Because that’s when we’ll be at our most dangerous and I hope we shell shock them in the first 20 minutes. Because I’m not sure this Barcelona team has ever received a rattling from anyone.