Liverpool FC Forum

[Madmax]

With macha and alonso in the middle barca would have not found it as easy as they did against the scums. Would have been a brill game vs barca.... Scums are shyte porto should have kicked them out but were too scared. I wouldn't rate mannure that highly in europe. There team in 99 performed much better.

[JoeTerp]

if we met them in the knockout stages, I think we would have won, and if we would have met them in the finals without Alves or Abidal I would have liked our chances in that as well.

[DanAn]

I think Barca would have played differently. Messi would have played wide right to exploit our weaker left back for a start.

However I think the scum where very weak in the center. Mash, Alonso and Gerrard IMO would have allowed us much more possesion and we've been ruthless on the counter attack so strategically we match up well. I think it would have been much like the Chelsea semi final, either team capable of winning.

[bigmick]

If we'd decided to go with an experimental diamond formation in central midfield from the outset, we'd have got mullered just the same as Man Utd did. Asking Giggs to link up with the slightly experimental centre forward and also drop in, was quite obviously foriegn to the players once it came under the closest scrutiny. Giggs wasn't sure when are when he should drop in, Rooney wasn't sure if his primary role was as an attacker or a defender, Carrick was shown up for what he is, and the whole thing fell apart. I cannot think of a better example and illustration of a manager getting carried away with himself and confusing the players, to such a disasterous effect. It just goes to show that in order to disrupt the rhythm and cohesion of a team, it isn't just WHO plays but it's also WHERE and HOW they play. Had we have gone in with one our more eccentrically styled line ups, Crouch left wing, Skyrtel right back, Gerrard left wing etc etc then obviously we would have gone the same way as Man Utd.

Equally bizarrely, Man Utd opted to sit the back four quite deep and effectively stretch the game. This I think was a combination of arrogance, stupidity and misjudgement. Perhaps they had believed some of the ridiculous press they'd been getting, "best team for thirty years", "best midfield ever" blah blah blah. Clearly though, Inniesta and Xavi are both better than anything Man Utd have in central midfield. It was clearly so on the night, but in fairness if you've ever seen the players play and have even a basic clue, it was obvious beforehand as well. As such, Man Utd ought to have adopted the same tactics which other English teams have adopted with much success against Barcelona. Namely, you compress the game, bite in the tackle, up the tempo, expose their posession and movement to the closest scrutiny and generally spend your energy on disrupting their rhythm. If you do it properly as Chelsea did under the excellence of Hiddink, they don't have a shot for the whole 90 minutes (although they did have one in injury time ). Man Utd's arrogance and silliness led them to engage Barcelona in a festival of football, lets see who can play the game with the most purity, see who can paint the prettiest landscape. As it was, it was akin to a painter and decorator challenging Picasso to a Mural contest. Embarrassing really and had we done the same we'd have got mullered.

Would we have done the same though? A couple of years ago maybe. A couple of years back we left our best striker at the time on the bench in the Champions League final and lost a game which was there for the winning. The fans would be singing "we've won it six times" had we not made that error IMHO. Equally, we played in that World Club Championship thingie and decided that heavily rotating the team for the final was a good idea to preserve the players for the "big" games towards the end of the season. We were eventually defeated in that final by a pub team, but it didn't really matter. These days though, we don't seem to engage in such nonsense any more. Bolo Zenden wouldn't play central midfield at the Emirates while Gerrard walks up and down the left wing like a little boy lost, we've moved on. Equally, I think the chances of Rafa being over expansive against Barcelona are about as big as us signing Joey Barton for a club record fee. So how WOULD we go?

My guess is that we'd certainly score at least once against them, particularly as they had a depleted back four. Torres would almost certainly score, simply because that's what he generally does. They'd probably score as well, after all they are an excellent team. Then, as the game descended into extra time, and penalties were looming, somebody would probably pick it up forty yards out, advance five and then smash it into the top corner. That somebody would no doubt be Steven Gerrard, simply because that's what he does. Then we could sing "we've won it seven times" (if we could go back in time and play Crouch against Milan), although we'd probably need a new tune as the double syllable on "seven" slightly lessens the impact and flow of the song.   

[Madmax]

Woah you killed it there mate but still feel you post was too short, few more paragraphs would have done the trick .....
Anyhow agree with all you said...Hopefully will hit no.6 next season.

[Octsky]

this mancs team is way way overrated. they have the attack but not the midfield.
anderson? giggs? scholes? o'shea (!!!) and fletcher and carrick (not in league with our 3 kings)

[azriahmad]

Watching the repeat of that match (I can't for the life of me, stay up at past 1am to watch, in my parts of the world, a live telecast game between mancs and another team I could not be bothered about) after reading how Barca totally bossed mancs around after Eto'o's goal and how totally ineffective their tactics were.

Playing Rooney wide and not to his strengths and Ronaldo up front with Giggs (at the start) when Barca had a makeshift defence due to injuries and suspensions and their dodgy 'keeper was a surprise. Fergie and his coaches should be more astute than that. Apart from Ronaldo's early free kick and some sporadic testing of the Barca defence, Ronny just shot from distance.

Torres would have murdered Vidic with his sheer pace, Eto'o who I think is not as quick as Torres, turned Vidic so easily and managed to toe-poke the first goal past Van der Sar and it went downhill after that.

Mancs then changed formation several times even before making substitutions but never closed down Barca.

I always liked Iniesta whenever I saw Barca play and it was so scandlous for Fergie to have a tactic of letting them loose. I am sure Xabi and Mascherano would have kept Xavi and Iniesta quiet and stifled their space and Gerrard and Torres would have severely tested Barca's defence and Valdes much more thoroughly.

I think Fergie thought that his forwards can press Barca's makeshift defence around that Barca's midfield threat is secondary on the premise than mancs can and will score first.
The score line should have been bigger than 2-0.

It's good to see mancs falling down to earth with such violent impact as surely they have been believing that they hate the so-called "best team in 30 years or so".

[JoeTerp]

I can't believe some of the press and man u players were seriously saying things like "if we would have had darren fletcher"  is that serious? Do they know that Barca were without Alves, Abidal, and Marquez?  Their CB pairing was a reject of their own team and a defensive midfielder.

[Owzat]

The mancs worried too much about their opponent's game and not their own. Wrong starting line-up, wrong tactics. It might work in the Premiership, but then 19 of their 28 wins in the league came against bottom half sides against whom they could have fielded that kind of side and won.

I'm not so sure we'd have fared much better, we would theoretically have better defensive cover with Kuyt, Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano, but Barca are an excellent side. The mancs have had problems against top sides this season, unfortunately for them Barca were the first top side they played in the Champions League. They won only one of their six 'big four' clashes in England, beating an off-colour Chelsea and even the trophies they won were against poor sides - LDU Quito in the "Club World Championship", pompey (14th) in the Community Shield on penalties and spudz (8th) on penalties in the League Cup. Maybe big games, but they certainly didn't play the big teams. When they faced Zenit St Petersburg they lost in the Super Cup, they love the league because there are so many easy pickings in it for them.

Look at the teams they played in the cups :

Community Shield - Pompey
UEFA Super Cup - ZENIT ST PETERSBURG
FA Cup - Southampton, spudz, Derby, Fulham, BITTERS (SF)
League Cup - Boro, QPR, Blackburn, Derby, spudz
World Club Championship - Gamba Osaka, LDU Quito
Champions League - Villareal, Celtic, Aalborg, Inter, Porto, Arsenal, BARCELONA

I think we might have gone a long way had we played those teams, they certainly do get some ripe ties with the likes of Derby, QPR and Southampton (all Championship, NONE in the play-offs or promoted) ONE 'big four' clash in the cups, Arsenal in their poor season. We have not had too big a problem with the big sides, our 1-3 reverse at Anfield to Chelsea the exception.

I pointed out to some manc on another forum that they'd been far from convincing, that was not long after the Club World Championship. He had a predictable pop at Liverpool, but the fact remains true and they may have wrapped up the Premiership, but what I said is supported by their arrogant exit from the FA Cup and their defeat to Barcelona. I don't subscribe to the 'Chelsea was robbed' theory, not getting any of a few shouts for penalties is not robbing anyone*, but I think the mancs were robbed of their chance to win the trophy.

*of the shouts for penalties, I would have given one but that is based on an angle the ref didn't have. I think far too much is made of that, ridiculous over-reaction by the fans and media. Most fans of the attacking side would want them given, if they were on the defending side they'd deem most of them harsh if given. If in doubt, the ref shouldn't give them. Chelsea weren't good enough to beat Barcelona without relying on ref assistance so should have no complaints.

[stmichael]

Having seen all three of Barca's matches against English opposition this season, I think we are, by far, the best equipped team, probably in the world, to handle them. That's not to say we would beat them in the high stakes environment of a final, but I do think we'd ask more questions of them than any other side.

The key to defeating Barca lies in the quality that has been at the heart of our best displays this season and which was glaringly absent in the game at Anfield that arguably denied us the chance to test this theory against the Catalans: aggression. Barca thrive in possession and so, in order to defeat them, they need to be harried from first whistle to last all over the pitch - but especially in the middle of it. That said, you then need to be set up to exploit any half chances that provides and I believe both our formation and best players are perfect for doing that.

Torres and Gerrard would destroy that Barca back line if given half a chance and, with Xabi and The Chief on their games in the centre and Dirk and Yossi/Albert supporting the full backs in both directions, they'd get the chance to, in my view. The key to an actual victory would lie, as Rafa is so fond of saying, in the small details: would we take the half chances eked out? Would we maintain the concentration at the back to deny their front three/five the time and space to cut us open? If so, we could beat them.

[tubby]

Where is the final next year?

[Sarge]

2-0 to us....gerrard scored the first, torres for the brace...

and we won another CL....




boringgggggggggg.......

[Boocity]

I was made up they lost but I was also angry at their pathetic display, ManU are supposed to be No 1 in the premiership but that was a very poor advert for our league. ManU won the EPL due to the smaller teams believing they had lsot before a ball had been kicked, look at their results against the better sides. In the UCL they had an easy route to the final and when they come up against a decent side they were found wanting.
Mark my words ManU should be seriously worried about next season. I know they they are the EPL champions but they never beat us and in my heart I know we are the no 1 team in the UK. Barcelona would not have wanted to play us in the final, I believe we would have beaten them.

[red37]

Where is the final next year?

Madrid

[Fauxy]

We are pretty similiar to barca when you think about it.. a lot of our attack comes from the midfield, players such as Alonso and Gerrard are there to feed balls to Torres as Xavi and Iniesta are their to feed balls to Eto'o and Messi.

Would have been a much better match I tell you that  the Mancs have exposed themselves and their midfield was totally outclassed.

If we had played Barca i think we would have won or at least put up a fight and played into extra time.