Post by ay23 on May 27, 2009 21:51:59 GMT
Alright got to vent now...I think we got this COMPLEEEEEEEETELY wrong. I know some of you may say that Barcelona played well and deserved it but they didn't. We were supposed to make it tough for them but we only just marginally made it harder than a walk in the park for them. There's a reason that Barcelona found it hard against Chelsea and Liverpool over the years and there is a reason why Messi hadn't scored against an English club before tonight. That is because the strength of English Premier League clubs is their combativeness, and today, we didn't play to that strength. What were Chelsea over the two legs recently, combative. What were we last year over the two legs in the semi-final, combative. We didn't play much last year, but we sure as hell pretty much made sure that they didn't play.
I think going into the game, thinking of what Sir Alex has said over the past few days, we took completely the wrong approach towards the game. I think Sir Alex went into the game feeling like he had to prove that we were as good as Barcelona, if not better, at playing "football" such is the competitor he is. Chelsea got so much bad press for the way they played in the semi-final and I think Sir Alex had a subconcious urge to distance himself from that (ie he said something along the lines of "We won't play like Chelsea" etc). I also think he got smitten with the way that Barcelona were praising us and almost urging us to play the way we did. Barcelona were urging us to play attacking football and it kind of became a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a way, I think that was a smart move by Barcelona.
I mean, Barcelona's strength is attacking. We all know that; we knew that before this season and we certainly knew that going into the game. I think Barcelona's front three scored 75 goals between them this season and yet, we concentrate on attacking. We seemed to concentrate on playing possesion football this season although on some crucial occasions, we didn't look like it. I mean, I don't know what the possesion stats were tonight but I'm sure we weren't far off. I mean, Barcelona were always going to win in terms of possesion but the fact that our possesion stats were a whole lot higher than usual against them suggests that we tried to play possesion football - I think Chelsea got like 30% possesion against them in the semi and they are one of the best possesion teams in the Premier League at least. As far as the of possesion is concerned, I am not too bothered. We are always going to lose possesion against Barcelona. However, it was the way we reacted to the loss of possesion that disappointed me. For example, the loss of possesion against Iniesta didn't become crucial until they scored the goal. It was fine that we lost the ball but our reaction to that lost was so slow. Anderson and Carrick (who lost the ball via a poor header in the first place) were both there and yet let Iniesta seemingly ghost past them. I know Iniesta is a good player - in fact, I thought he was their most dangerous player coming into this game (and today I was probably proved right) - which is all the more reason he should go pass two of our players. Anderson got with him, and yet let him go. Which again is the lack of combativeness I was talking about. Chelsea would have fought him for possesion until they got it or fouled him, we didn't. And then, to top things of, Vidic defended stupidly and looked like a 12 year old girl dancing with Eto'o when Eto'o slotted the ball home. I am no footballer, nor a footballing coach, but I am sure in those situaitons, the best thing to do is not to allow the opposition player to get "goal-side". However, Vidic let him do that anyway. If Vidic had pushed Eto'o down the line, there was no way he would have scored.
Furthermore, Barcelona's second goal was a prime example of the un-Premier League like way in which we played today. Despite our talk of playing unlike Chelsea all week, it was stressed that we maintain concentration. We let Messi ghost in there - no midfield player tracked him - and subsequently he scored the goal. If either O'Shea or Ferdinand had been in the vicinity, he wouldn't have scored it.
I think, tactically, we started off on the wrong foot, emloying Giggs in midfield and even moving him up to striker at points during the first half when it was imperative to stop Barcelona this game. And then, in the second half, when a win was still seemingly attainable, we opened up to them even more, switching to 4-4-2 which is one of the reasons I thought that Messi scored - there was no midfield tracker on him at all, although there would not have been a guarantee on there being one if we had an extra man in midfield but an extra man would definitely have taken the strain off the two that were playing at the time.
I think we played into Barcelona's hands today. I mean, Barcelona are smart, and we were naive today. Despite their attacks on defending, when we get the ball, they had 11 men behind the ball today with Sergio Busquets dropping deep to almost form a 5-man backline at times. And yet, we didn't defend today, simple as.
Your thoughts?
I think going into the game, thinking of what Sir Alex has said over the past few days, we took completely the wrong approach towards the game. I think Sir Alex went into the game feeling like he had to prove that we were as good as Barcelona, if not better, at playing "football" such is the competitor he is. Chelsea got so much bad press for the way they played in the semi-final and I think Sir Alex had a subconcious urge to distance himself from that (ie he said something along the lines of "We won't play like Chelsea" etc). I also think he got smitten with the way that Barcelona were praising us and almost urging us to play the way we did. Barcelona were urging us to play attacking football and it kind of became a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a way, I think that was a smart move by Barcelona.
I mean, Barcelona's strength is attacking. We all know that; we knew that before this season and we certainly knew that going into the game. I think Barcelona's front three scored 75 goals between them this season and yet, we concentrate on attacking. We seemed to concentrate on playing possesion football this season although on some crucial occasions, we didn't look like it. I mean, I don't know what the possesion stats were tonight but I'm sure we weren't far off. I mean, Barcelona were always going to win in terms of possesion but the fact that our possesion stats were a whole lot higher than usual against them suggests that we tried to play possesion football - I think Chelsea got like 30% possesion against them in the semi and they are one of the best possesion teams in the Premier League at least. As far as the of possesion is concerned, I am not too bothered. We are always going to lose possesion against Barcelona. However, it was the way we reacted to the loss of possesion that disappointed me. For example, the loss of possesion against Iniesta didn't become crucial until they scored the goal. It was fine that we lost the ball but our reaction to that lost was so slow. Anderson and Carrick (who lost the ball via a poor header in the first place) were both there and yet let Iniesta seemingly ghost past them. I know Iniesta is a good player - in fact, I thought he was their most dangerous player coming into this game (and today I was probably proved right) - which is all the more reason he should go pass two of our players. Anderson got with him, and yet let him go. Which again is the lack of combativeness I was talking about. Chelsea would have fought him for possesion until they got it or fouled him, we didn't. And then, to top things of, Vidic defended stupidly and looked like a 12 year old girl dancing with Eto'o when Eto'o slotted the ball home. I am no footballer, nor a footballing coach, but I am sure in those situaitons, the best thing to do is not to allow the opposition player to get "goal-side". However, Vidic let him do that anyway. If Vidic had pushed Eto'o down the line, there was no way he would have scored.
Furthermore, Barcelona's second goal was a prime example of the un-Premier League like way in which we played today. Despite our talk of playing unlike Chelsea all week, it was stressed that we maintain concentration. We let Messi ghost in there - no midfield player tracked him - and subsequently he scored the goal. If either O'Shea or Ferdinand had been in the vicinity, he wouldn't have scored it.
I think, tactically, we started off on the wrong foot, emloying Giggs in midfield and even moving him up to striker at points during the first half when it was imperative to stop Barcelona this game. And then, in the second half, when a win was still seemingly attainable, we opened up to them even more, switching to 4-4-2 which is one of the reasons I thought that Messi scored - there was no midfield tracker on him at all, although there would not have been a guarantee on there being one if we had an extra man in midfield but an extra man would definitely have taken the strain off the two that were playing at the time.
I think we played into Barcelona's hands today. I mean, Barcelona are smart, and we were naive today. Despite their attacks on defending, when we get the ball, they had 11 men behind the ball today with Sergio Busquets dropping deep to almost form a 5-man backline at times. And yet, we didn't defend today, simple as.
Your thoughts?