Liverpool FC Forum

[sgs]

When the quarter final CL draws were made, I told some friends in a discussion that only two teams could beat Barca; Chelsea and Liverpool. And of the two, that I thought only Liverpool had the clearest chance to do it.

2. I stated that it would be madness for any team in Europe to play an open game with Barca.

3. My position then (and still) was based on the fact that only Liverpool had the overall team game, the resilience, and especially, the personnel to match up and best Barcelona in central midfield, with Alonso and Mascherano.

4. Needless to say this is now after the fact, but question remains- how would we have fared against this Barcelona team?

[Reg]

10 -0,  Kuyt scoring 5 by half time.

[dawson99]

I think we would have fared well

[tubby]

Rafa has a good record against Spainsh sides. But more importantly we play 2 holding midfielders so I think they would have helped to shackle Iniesta/Xavi to some extent.

[andy_g]

I think we would have fared well

hhhmmmm.... i'd be concerned for our wellfare

[roberto green]

I thought the very thing myself and I always thought us and Chelsea are the only teams that could stop them as I think in the Champions league that Chelsea are the vonly team to stop us.

[andy_g]

in all seriousness i think we'd have done a lot better than the mancs. there is no way that we would have given them so much time and space in the midfield which is where the game was won for barcelona. guardiola has introduced a beautiful fluency to their game but i don't believe that iniesta, xavi and messi are significantly better players than when we had them shackled a couple of seasons back.

[Sir Roger]

We'd have marmalised them!

No seriously. I really believe we would have took the game to them and had too much for them.
I take nothing away from messi, xavi, iniesta etc but I have no doubt that in the form were in and the team weve got we would have beat them.
It would never have been the men against boys game we saw last night.
It would have been a classic

[Emerald Red]

I can say with confidence that we'd have given them a better game than they did for a fact. Ronaldo and Rooney just seem to fade into the woodwork when big games come about, whereas Gerrard and Torres just seem to shine most of the time. They barely threatened their back line, whereas we'd have ran them ragged at the back. I've no doubt we'd have beaten Barca comperhensively. They are a great team, but we've proven (in their own back yard with lesser players) that we can outplay them.

[heimdall]

Well Chelsea did beat them bar that fecking useless pr1ck of a Norwegian referee who I think is still in hiding. 

We would also have beaten them, they are good but have weaknesses, especially in defence but Manure completely lost this match tactically by not gaining control of the midfield and letting Barcelona dictate the tempo. It was the worst big game from Manure since we kicked their . Weird how Barca got praise and not us though wasn't it.    Well who cares Fergie will be even more p1ssed off when we sign Tevez from under his nose in a few weeks time. 

[Sir Roger]

Well Chelsea did beat them bar that fecking useless pr1ck of a Norwegian referee who I think is still in hiding. 

We would also have beaten them, they are good but have weaknesses, especially in defence but Manure completely lost this match tactically by not gaining control of the midfield and letting Barcelona dictate the tempo. It was the worst big game from Manure since we kicked their . Weird how Barca got praise and not us though wasn't it.    Well who cares Fergie will be even more p1ssed off when we sign Tevez from under his nose in a few weeks time. 

You missed out purple

[red37]

One thing that went through my mind was that, i believe we would have played our usual game against them. Simple as that.

Man Utd seemed to alter their normal style to somehow accomodate Barca's threat. Despite spending the first exchanges 'right in their face' - that didn't last long after Eto'os strike. They definately crumbled, went into their collective shell.

Now, in the past Rafa has been doing the very same thing himself....cautiously anticipating the oppo. But now, i think he has adopted a more flexible and dynamic approach. One were the lads are capable of dictating from the off - a games 'tempo'

We certainly wouldn't have let them a minutes peace like the Mancs did. And they DID. I don't believe for one second that Manchester are as poor as last nights affair highlighted them. Barcelona did a stellar job on them......only because it seemed they were allowed to. At least, Liverpool (you would rightly expect) would have worked overtime to close the spaces down. Its a puzzle as to why Utd were'nt playing their aces well enough like we know they can.

Yes, Barca leathered em. But i don't believe there is THAT much difference on another day to pick between the pair.

Well maybe with the exceptions of Iniesta/Xavi and Messi 

[Ace Ventura]

One thing that went through my mind was that, i believe we would have played our usual game against them. Simple as that.

Man Utd seemed to alter their normal style to somehow accomodate Barca's threat. Despite spending the first exchanges 'right in their face' - that didn't last long after Eto'os strike. They definately crumbled, went into their collective shell.

Now, in the past Rafa has been doing the very same thing himself....cautiously anticipating the oppo. But now, i think he has adopted a more flexible and dynamic approach. One were the lads are capable of dictating from the off - a games 'tempo'

We certainly wouldn't have let them a minutes peace like the Mancs did. And they DID. I don't believe for one second that Manchester are as poor as last nights affair highlighted them. Barcelona did a stellar job on them......only because it seemed they were allowed to. At least, Liverpool (you would rightly expect) would have worked overtime to close the spaces down. Its a puzzle as to why Utd were'nt playing their aces well enough like we know they can.

Yes, Barca leathered em. But i don't believe there is THAT much difference on another day to pick between the pair.

Well maybe with the exceptions of Iniesta/Xavi and Messi 

Thats what i was saying last night, i was bladdered and even tried to phone your on sky sports with my comments.

Fergie got it completley wrong imo, he tried to play an open expansive game to get a killer early goal thinking the Barca defence would not be able to contain Ronaldo and Rooney.
It nearly worked as they had Barcelona rocked for about 9 minutes.
But if you open up against players like that you risk a swift counter attack.
They have some of the best attacking players in the world and with Xavi and Iniesta clever midfield players that can pick the right pass.
The goal itself (the opener) was comical as well, player of the year Vidic    again disgraceful when forced to stop a player running at him.
Van der Sar (better than Pepe according to most media sources and pundits) majorly at fault for letting that shot go in.
But once they conceded i thought Ferguson would have reverted back to normal tactics and got the players to work their socks off to stop Barca playing. Like Chelsea did in the semis and like united did last season.
No sign of it though, they carried on in the same vein but just got passed off the pitch then.
At times it was embarrasing to watch but funny for us 

I have no doubt if united played them again and employed tactics of stopping them playing they would have fared so much better.

Back to the original question how we would have fared.
I also think very well, we are masters of stopping the opposition and then have Gerrard and Torres to counter with.
It would have been a very difficult match but i think we would snuff the life out of them and then nick a goal.

One things for sure we wouldnt be as arrogant as to think we could play an expansive open game against a side with technically the best players in the world.

He generally learns from his mistakes fergie so i dont expect them to ever play a big match in that manner again until he gets over confident like last night.

Last time i seen them that badly outplayed was the semis with milan 2 years ago in Milan.
Another lovely night that was 

[jono]

would of ended up 4-4

[Sir Roger]

would of ended up 4-4

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