The main goal for United (besides scoring obviously) will be to stop Barcelona’s success in the final third. Say what you will about Jose Mourinho’s tactics against the Catalonian’s but they have found some success. Inter Milan last year for example defended stoutly in that final third and although Barcelona enjoyed the majority of the possession, they were unable to do anything with it. This is a big key to Manchester United victory on Saturday night. If Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand and Rafael (or Fabio, Or O’Shea) can stay strong as a back four and resist the urge to bomb forward, and Carrick and Fletcher keep position in front of them, then it could pay dividends for United.
In doing this, of course, United will be looking to catch the Spanish champions on the break. I have little doubt that Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia and Ji-Sung Park will be the three players rounding out the midfield for the English champions. Giggs will need to use his creativity to pick out Rooney with long passes when possible as Busquets is one of the best at the defensive midfield role and he will not be easy to get past. Valencia and Park will need to bomb down the wings and exploit the areas in which Barcelona may have a weakness.
Certainly at left-back Barcelona have looked unsteady in the past. Abidal is not as solid as some would hope and Valencia is a fantastic winger with frightening pace who can take full advantage of this. On the other side, Park is a tireless worker who is incredibly creative. His pace and stamina are also becoming legendary. However, Dani Alves seemingly wrote the book on speed and cardio. Neither men seem to tire and it should make for a fascinating battle to watch. Great as Alves is though he does occasionally get caught too high up the pitch and a quick break for United with Park bombing down the left flank could exploit this. The two wingers’ job is quite simply to run down those wings and cross the ball into the middle for Rooney to pounce on.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Manchester United cannot concede a goal early as they did in 2009. As soon as Samuel Eto’o buried the ball after just 10 minutes, United were fighting an uphill battle. If United can weather the early storm from Barcelona, the first 20 minutes of the match say, then perhaps they can find their rhythm against the Spanish giants and look to work the gameplan of catching them on the break. If they go 1-0 down early on though, they will be in serious trouble.
So the keys to victory for United are essentially; don’t concede early, stay strong across midfield to stop Xavi, Iniesta and Messi from working their magic, stay strong in defence to stop Barcelona’s success in the final third, and try and catch Barcelona on the break particularly on the wings. If Manchester United can stick to this sort of strategy then they might be able to pull off the upset in this one. Honestly though I just can’t see it happening. Barcelona should take this one 2-0 again. Expect Messi to do something spectacular too. In all honesty, United’s best strategy could be to ask for divine intervention. Barcelona are just that good.
Expected line-ups:
Barcelona – Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, Villa
Manchester United – Van Der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney
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lol! Has Man utd not beat Barca with Messi playing?? Has teams never beat Barca? Its football and not being funny or anything but for all the critism this Man utd team has had its not too shabby. Very strong back 5, and 2 strikers that can fit into any team in the world and legendary Scholes and giggs in midfield plus the wingers arent half bad, so let say eh??
I know Sir Alex is very despisate to do everything possible to pip Barca to the trophy, but if his plans are centred on how to stop Messi, he has failed already because Barca have players who can win game on their own.
Darren Fletcher has not proven his fitness and he did not feature at the testimonial (he looks terrible) Paul Scholes should not play, with Barcelona kidology and feigning injury Scholesy is too slow to tackle quick close ball masters like Barcelona and will be sent off in 20 minutes. to stand any chance against Barcelona he must play,
Van der Sar (Goal)Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (defense) Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Nani (midfield) Park (free role, to marshal Messi and join in attacks his energy level is the key and Rooney, when Barcelona gets tired in the second half then bring on Hernandez to scare the hell out of them. The midfield are all comfortable on the ball and will have some possession, this in my opinion is the only way to win, Fergie will of course play Scholesy to show he is still important to Man U and encourage to stay, Scholes deliberatly refuse to commit another year because he knows will give him a golden ticket to the final, this will be our downfall.