The English Football Thread

[EvilChuck]

Depending on what lineup United go for, their strengths are actually Barca's weaknesses. Namely, a slow backline that is weak defensively in the wide positions. Pique and Puyol will be easily outrun by Hernandez if he plays, and Abidal and Alves would not be able to defend well against the pace and directness of Valencia and the intelligence of a Ji Sung Park respectively.

I think United defensively can be organised enough to be able to deal with Barca, who do struggle when they come up against teams who will play defensively. Inter knocked them out last year doing it, United themselves did it in 2008, Chelsea were in the process of doing it in 2009 (until the referee decided that handball was no longer a rule) and Real Madrid were doing it this year until Pepe's red card.

Its the central midfield where the game will be won for United. If they can get the ball off of Barca and actually do something productive with it in an attacking sense, they can win pretty comfortably IMO. The problem is its not as easy as that, getting the ball off of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets isnt a simple task, and when Barca dont have the ball they will hassle high up the pitch and try to force errors, its up to United's players to have the composure to deal with that.

I'm thinking 1-0 United, or 2-1 Barca.

[Mojo]

2-1 Barca, maybe 3-1.

As much as I hope I'm wrong, I just see Barcelona picking them apart.

[right-track]

Outclassed.

[jackhammer]

Originally Posted by right-track

Outclassed.

Truly outstanding. Barcelona are the best team I have ever seen.

I do think they are vulnerable though and there were some below par Man U performances. Valencia and Giggs were poor tonight especially Valencia. The sort of balls that Hernandez thrives on were just not there so this added to another poor performance even though it wasn't entirely his fault.

Van De Saar was definitely at fault with the second goal but the scoreline could have been 6-1 really.

[right-track]

I could give my opinion on where United went wrong, but that wouldn't be doing Barcelona any justice.
Valencia and Giggs were poor,but only because of the quality of opposition.
Valencia was reduced to playing right back instead of running the line. Giggs was played around. Carrick may as well have stayed at home. Park would have been better off doing shuttle runs between cones. Hernandez just didn't get the service he should have.
Only Rooney was good enough to play for Barcelona, should they find the room for him!
Basically, Barcelona did to United what United should have done to them.
Close down the opposition when not in possession and find room when on the ball.
I've only ever seen United outclassed like tonight on 2 other occasions.
Once by AC Milan in a semi-final 2nd leg and the other by Barcelona in the 2008 final.

There's nothing much wrong with United. They have a good enough team to win the league and get to a European final.
But this Barcelona team are in a class of their own!!!
They made United look ordinary tonight.

[jackhammer]

When you consider that their front 3 have over 100 goals between them this season you just have to hold your hands up in acknowledgement.

I disagree about Valencia at the very least. Forget the opposition, he had enough time on the ball to show his class but he gave it away on many occasions and as for Giggsy? I have no opinion on his private life but from a footballing P.O.V he really shouldn't have started. You cannot expect the most strong minded character out there to not be affected by the amount of media he has received this week and that showed in his performance. Solid work rate but that spark was not there.

For the neutral? It was a pleasure to see the game played this way. Barcelona are quite simply awesome.

[Bulldog]

Great little cup final. Good value as Barca were for the win though, I do think it's a shame United didn't keep up that early momentum, or build effectively on going in level at half-time. Maybe it was down to Barca simply being the better team, but in parts of the first half I thought there was potential for United to at least see the game through to extra time.

Originally Posted by jackhammer

BTW- congrats Bulldog, you stayed up (again!).

I can still barely believe it myself, especially after the way it started for the lads.

Barring conceding 10 goals in the opening 2 fixtures, and the worst Wigan Atheltic performance I've ever seen at Arsenal in February (yes, I'd say it was even worse than the 9-1 at Spurs myself), as it ended up it was a fairly solid finish to the season - 42 points (our third-highest total since we've been in the Premier League), the lowest number of defeats a Wigan side's ever had over a PL season. Unlike this time last year, I'm far from dreading the coming of next season and actually feeling very optimistic about it, whether or not we lose Diame or N'Zogbia this summer (which probably will happen, at least with the latter). If we can just stop dropping points from winning positions (as happened with about 15 of them over the campaign), get a proven goalscorer, a stronger holding midfielder and replacement for N'Zogbia in, I'll have high hopes for next season.

[CHCl3]

I couldn't find the game on my local television and had guests over unexpectedly so I couldn't watch the game.

[FRED HALE SR.]

Originally Posted by right-track

Outclassed.

I really thought Man U looked good in the first half. They were demolished in the second half. Barcelona just took possession away from United in the second half and pressed them into mistakes. Rooney got the English contingent going with his first half goal, Ye olde ship inn was rocking for the first half. Lots of tears in the beers to end of the day, but just getting to the Euro Final is a treat for most fans. Great skill on display and a fun game to watch overall. No salt in the wounds, just wanted to confirm how great Barcelona played.

[jackhammer]

Whilst I wouldn't wish ill health on anyone, I am pleased that Houllier has been released from managerial duties today and hope that Villa's board get a manager in with a long term aim and stay with him.

Reo-Coker and Jon Carew have already been released and news that Friedel is near enough gone along with the almost certain news that both Young and Downing will move to pastures new means that we will have to virtually build a new team.

Let's hope that we can rebuild for the long term.

Very surprised that Owen has got another year at United. To me that is virtual proof that they want to offload Berbatov. Along with Arsenal seemingly in a transitional period and god knows what going on at Chelsea could see one of the most active transfer periods for years.