Benitez's substitution policy

[Shanks]

At half time, Carlos Tevez came on for one of Brazilian's brightest midfielders, so we were meant to think.

If you are losing one-zip in a final at half time, that decision is at most called brave.

The long and cheerful tangent brings me to one of the clubs most emotional nights.

Dietmar Hamann, a cult hero in his own right cemented himself into Anfield folklore.

Brought in to stop the runs and wizardry of the human magician, Ricardo Kaka,

I wrote it.

Yeah right.

[Helios Creed]

When I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing now.

manure's midfield is adequate at best - it can beat most of the teams in the prem and sometimes punch above their weight and beat one of the top four , but as we and Barca showed, it is not as good as their defence and attack. Weakening it and bringing on more strikers so early in the game was bordering on inept. I wonder if Fergie is more of a motivator than a strategist. His players do consistently over-achieve, whereas we seem to suffer from under-achievers - imagine if we'd got out of Cisse et al what he's got out of Fletcher.

[lickedlollipop]

can't wait we meet them (barca) next year. we gonna kick their asses.

[dww]

manure's midfield is adequate at best - it can beat most of the teams in the prem and sometimes punch above their weight and beat one of the top four , but as we and Barca showed, it is not as good as their defence and attack. Weakening it and bringing on more strikers so early in the game was bordering on inept. I wonder if Fergie is more of a motivator than a strategist. His players do consistently over-achieve, whereas we seem to suffer from under-achievers - imagine if we'd got out of Cisse et al what he's got out of Fletcher.

I think there is something in that - the best teams under Fergie have come when he has had a good assistant. He had Phelan this year and I think was lucky to get away with it. I'll be happy if they don't alter their backroom staff this summer.

I suspect that Fletcher has been a good player waiting to get out for a while - he has always impressed for Scotland. I think his personal willingness to learn has been what is important in the same way it has been for Carragher. I think in the past we have been to desperate to try and improve quickly leading to risks like Cisse who has always seemed to me like he was distrustful of new ideas and Pennant who had had chances before and failed to learn the lessons.

[Ron_Mexico]

Ferguson got shown up as the tactically naive, one trick pony that he is in the CL final. He's been shown up in Europe so many times because he's predictable and his opponents aren't **** scared of the scum like so many English clubs are, beaten before a ball is kicked.

He started with a team that couldn't afford to give up a goal early (against a team who was soft at the back and had been scoring freely all season) because they were limited in midfield and going forward.

Then they get dominated in midfield and so he takes more midfielders off and destroys the shape of the team even more. They can't build any attacks because they're so disjointed, while they get ripped apart by Barca's counters.

It was a masterclass by Guardiola and a disgrace from Slur, who is meant to be such a great manager. Tell you what he's ****ing lucky he lucked those 2 European cups because he's not getting any more

[MrMichael]

When I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing now.

Totally agree. I think we would have given Barca a much closer game, and to be fair to them, so would Chelsea too.

Tell you what he's ****ing lucky he lucked those 2 European cups because he's not getting any more

[TheStig]

Totally agree. I think we would have given Barca a much closer game, and to be fair to them, so would Chelsea too.

Not really a "would" is it, more a did.

[MrMichael]

Not really a "would" is it, more a did.

Yeah, well a one off final is always different but your point does have a certain amount of validity I suppose...

[Catrin]

[QUOTE=MrMichael;1349285]Totally agree. I think we would have given Barca a much closer game, and to be fair to them, so would Chelsea too.


Rafa is always on about controlling the game and that is exactly what Barca did. They controlled the game by keeping the ball when they had it, and through the positioning of players when United had it. We pretty much try to do the same, though Barca are obviously better than us at keeping the ball. We are better than anyone at stopping the oppostition from playing though. We made Real look awful. I'm not saying that we would have beaten Barca that night, and it probably would have been a duller spectacle, but we would have given them a much harder game and we would have put their defence under a lot more pressure than United managed.