29 Wed UEFA Champions League A Manchester United 19:45

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

He can hold off Ferdinand if the midfield is more energetic and Ferdinand had something else other than only him to think about. For instance, I remember a part where Gibbs or Nasri had the ball on the left and Adebayor was alone in the box with 5 red shirts. And what was he supposed to do with that?

What are you even saying? To firstly discuss this topic with you let me make it clear I AM NOT AN ADEBAYOR CRITIC. Knowing how you enter topics only to prevent any criticism of him it will be tough to convince you but have a look at the game again.

Tevez was a lone striker. Touré had nothing apart from him to think about most times but TEvez did a fantastic job of holding the ball and holding off Touré who himself is extremely powerful. Adebayor is 6 feet 4 has enough power to hold of Ferdinand but he did not bring his A game today.

You think defenders have anyone other than Drogba to think about but he generally does the job of two strikers by using his power.

Did you watch Eduardo come on play the same role ahead of the same languid midfield but hold of Ferdinand who is quite taller, once drawing a foul and the second time simply holding him off with a fantastic first touch.

Adebayor has played this role before and he has done it much better.

Very unfair comparison. First Ade doesnt have the power of Drogba. His effectiveness is always with his runs outside.but that required people running in. He has just not been that good holding on the ball and Ferdinanrd/Vidic is a different monster than Toure. You cant even compare. Cut him some slack, expectin him to hold off these guys was asking too much. I think he did the best he could with the support he got which was non-existence.

 

[McIntyre]

Fabregas was s**t at the start of the season because he was s**t while carrying an injury, it had f**k all to do with his partner who generally outperformed him game after game.

Try reading my post sabre. I said Cesc was sh*t, but he wasn't helped by having Denilson alongside him. I wasn't blaming Cesc's sh*tness on Denilson.

 

[Zico]

Tevez as lone striker? Ronaldo spent about as much time leading the line, and Rooney had a lot of penetrative runs. Tevez was operating in a much more enabling environment than Adebayor.

In any case, when the whole team collapses as it did today, I find it hard to single out Adebayor, Fabregas, Song, Walcott or anyone else for criticism. There was a systemic failure, and that directs blame to Wenger.

 

[invisibleman18]

We were terrible and really don't deserve to still be in the tie. It's purely thanks to Almunia that we weren't already out by the 30th minute.

****ing disgraceful goal that was. Why was Carrick unmarked in the box when they had a corner? And then why was O'Shea unmarked inside the 6 yard box before the ball was cleared? Absolutely unacceptable. Almunia didn't deserve that after that unbelieveable save.

 

[Biggus]

They was a couple of them queuing up unmarked.....F**k Wenger, forget about playing Cesc upfront, why was the useless Bendtner brought on for the ineffective Walcott at 70 minutes? Eduardo should have been on at 60. Thanks to Al we're still in the tie- in theory- I have absolute no confidence in Wenger's match tactics or us not to ship a cheap goal at the Emirates...F**k Wenger- Oh I already said that.

 

[KY]

Ade is our new eboue...except worse. at least back then eboue showed some heart and work rate.

 

[Lord Dula]

They was a couple of them queuing up unmarked.....F**k Wenger, forget about playing Cesc upfront, why was the useless Bendtner brought on for the ineffective Walcott at 70 minutes? Eduardo should have been on at 60. Thanks to Al we're still in the tie- in theory- I have absolute no confidence in Wenger's match tactics or us not to ship a cheap goal at the Emirates...F**k Wenger- Oh I already said that.

I have zero confidence in his tactical ability too. It really was like watching boys v men last night.

 

[Unforgiven]

I knew the game would be like this, United would be all at us in the second half. I think we can take the positives from this game. It is not a crisis, we can easily get to the final. Teams do loose games on the away leg and we only lost 1-0 to the European champions.

We dominated possession in the second half, we should have done that in this first half more. Siljester was ****.

Only if Bendtner scored that goal with 5 mins to go with the header.....

 

[True Gooner]

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!1!!1

Credit cruch!

Swine Flu!

Denilllllllllllllson!!!

 

[Rohit]

He can hold off Ferdinand if the midfield is more energetic and Ferdinand had something else other than only him to think about. For instance, I remember a part where Gibbs or Nasri had the ball on the left and Adebayor was alone in the box with 5 red shirts. And what was he supposed to do with that?

What are you even saying? To firstly discuss this topic with you let me make it clear I AM NOT AN ADEBAYOR CRITIC. Knowing how you enter topics only to prevent any criticism of him it will be tough to convince you but have a look at the game again.

Tevez was a lone striker. Touré had nothing apart from him to think about most times but TEvez did a fantastic job of holding the ball and holding off Touré who himself is extremely powerful. Adebayor is 6 feet 4 has enough power to hold of Ferdinand but he did not bring his A game today.

You think defenders have anyone other than Drogba to think about but he generally does the job of two strikers by using his power.

Did you watch Eduardo come on play the same role ahead of the same languid midfield but hold of Ferdinand who is quite taller, once drawing a foul and the second time simply holding him off with a fantastic first touch.

Adebayor has played this role before and he has done it much better.

Very unfair comparison. First Ade doesnt have the power of Drogba. His effectiveness is always with his runs outside.but that required people running in. He has just not been that good holding on the ball and Ferdinanrd/Vidic is a different monster than Touré. You cant even compare. Cut him some slack, expectin him to hold off these guys was asking too much. I think he did the best he could with the support he got which was non-existence.

I guess it is an unfair comparison. May be i was just upset because i believed Adebayor had the strength and power to trouble Vidic/ Ferdinand. When Adebayor is up for it he can be an absolute monster and Ferdinand himself admits it. I still think Adebayor could have done better.

 

[Rohit]

Tevez as lone striker? Ronaldo spent about as much time leading the line, and Rooney had a lot of penetrative runs. Tevez was operating in a much more enabling environment than Adebayor.

In any case, when the whole team collapses as it did today, I find it hard to single out Adebayor, Fabregas, Song, Walcott or anyone else for criticism. There was a systemic failure, and that directs blame to Wenger.

This is a sentiment i completely agree with because we did fail as a unit, defensively and offensively. While i do not believe it was down to formation, i agree the players were all out of position.

Tevez mostly played ahead of Rooney and Ronaldo and did a great job of holding the ball using his power against Toure. Ofcourse the difference was support for him came quick through Ronaldo, Rooney and Anderson or even Fletcher at times. Man United were just quicker than us.

I am upset with Adebayor because he didn't do a good job of keeping possession. I know it was difficult, there was a huge gap between him and the midfield but i believe in his ability to still hold off Ferdinand when he is up to it.

Also, although i say Tevez did a good job, i don't think Toure or Silvestre were half as aggresive as Ferdinand or Vidic. Infact i thought Gibbs was the most aggresive of the back four being half their size and it is disappointing.

 

[Biggus]

I know I said Wenger lost us this game, and I do believe he handicapped us with his insane tactical decisions. I, like Dula knew what was going to happen in this game.

I had no nerves leading up to the game, I just felt sort of sick from about 3 or 4 o'clock onwards. I know deep down that we aren't good enough to beat Man United. They are simply better than we are, and have better players. I'm not saying we couldn't fluke our way past them and into the final, we still might, but I knew we weren't good enough to go there and beat them.

We are devoid of quality in certain areas, and until we address that we aren't going to achieve anything.

Losing the faith are we Ricky? :wink: Man U's team isn't better that ours, they simply have a manager who knows how to apply the right tactics to win a game and is not blinded and hamstrung by any ideological issues.

 

[ricky1985]

How much do we have to take a look at the players last night? Were they nervous, did they bottle it on the big occasion?

Wenger definitely made mistakes, but ultimately our game is founded on playing a high-line in defense and squeezing the game. We didn't do that last night, well actually that's not true, we managed it for most of the second half, and we utterly dominated. Yes, they countered us everytime our passing broke down in the final third, but we pushed them back and probably had 60% of the ball in the second half. Why did we drop so deep in the first 30 mniutes? Because they came at us and we didn't have the confidence or belief to stand-up, push-up, and stand tall.

When we do that we can beat anyone, okay we had some players in our team who probably aren't good enough at this level. Silvestre at the back, Diaby on the left flank, and there's no doubt that probably affects the other players confidence, maybe Toure would have pushed up if he Gallas was alongside him, maybe not?

However the point remains - when we push up we control the game, we dominate, and we usually win. I have a feeling we are just too young, too inexperienced, and too nervous to play 'our' game.

 

[Rohit]

I know I said Wenger lost us this game, and I do believe he handicapped us with his insane tactical decisions. I, like Dula knew what was going to happen in this game.

I had no nerves leading up to the game, I just felt sort of sick from about 3 or 4 o'clock onwards. I know deep down that we aren't good enough to beat Man United. They are simply better than we are, and have better players. I'm not saying we couldn't fluke our way past them and into the final, we still might, but I knew we weren't good enough to go there and beat them.

We are devoid of quality in certain areas, and until we address that we aren't going to achieve anything.

Losing the faith are we Ricky? :wink: Man U's team isn't better that ours, they simply have a manager who knows how to apply the right tactics to win a game and is not blinded and hamstrung by any ideological issues.

What is sad is that it wasn't the tactical genius of Fergusson that beat us. It was Wenger that beat himself and and us through tactical ****.

 

[ricky1985]

I know I said Wenger lost us this game, and I do believe he handicapped us with his insane tactical decisions. I, like Dula knew what was going to happen in this game.

I had no nerves leading up to the game, I just felt sort of sick from about 3 or 4 o'clock onwards. I know deep down that we aren't good enough to beat Man United. They are simply better than we are, and have better players. I'm not saying we couldn't fluke our way past them and into the final, we still might, but I knew we weren't good enough to go there and beat them.

We are devoid of quality in certain areas, and until we address that we aren't going to achieve anything.

Losing the faith are we Ricky? :wink: Man U's team isn't better that ours, they simply have a manager who knows how to apply the right tactics to win a game and is not blinded and hamstrung by any ideological issues.

I don't think Fergie got his tactics spot on. I think he's extremely lucky that we were incredibly poor.

Do you think Fergie wanted us to utterly dominate the ball like we did in the second half? Ok he was happy to keep it tight, and hit us on the break, but he couldn't have dreamed we'd have so much of the ball and be so ineffecive in our usage of it. Who goes to Old Trafford and has 60% of the ball in the second half of a big game? No one. The problem is we had nothing, absolutely nothing in the final third.

People are lauding Fletcher, and to a lesser degree Anderson and Carrick. I was in shock when I heard that. For the first 30 minutes maybe, but they were absolutely dominated thereafter. Passed around like fools, Song and Nasri completely dominated them. Like I said though we had nothing to hit in the final third, and that's Wenger's real crime.

If we don't go 2 upfront in the return leg, then we deserve to go out, and Wenger will have failed us.

 

[Captain]

There was nothing wrong with Wenger's tactics or team selection.

He failed to make a real impact from the subs bench though, as is often the case.

 

[sesquioxide]

They was a couple of them queuing up unmarked.....F**k Wenger, forget about playing Cesc upfront, why was the useless Bendtner brought on for the ineffective Walcott at 70 minutes? Eduardo should have been on at 60. Thanks to Al we're still in the tie- in theory- I have absolute no confidence in Wenger's match tactics or us not to ship a cheap goal at the Emirates...F**k Wenger- Oh I already said that.

By the 75th minute, when our midfield didn't look like producing anything, I thought we should have tried having all of Bendtner, Eduardo, and Adebayor up front waiting for long balls. The 2 big guys and the clinical finisher would have given Vidic and Ferdinand a lot more pause, and the tactical plan had already entirely nullified Diaby that his substitution would have been no big loss in contribution.

Wenger's downfall would be caused by his inflexibility. We should have gone to long balls when our midfield wasn't able to assert itself. I appreciate the principle of the passing game, but in the end we only needed 1 goal to have turned the tie entirely in our favor and who knows how many years it would take for us to get to the Champions League semi-finals again.

 

[sesquioxide]

Do you think Fergie wanted us to utterly dominate the ball like we did in the second half? Ok he was happy to keep it tight, and hit us on the break, but he couldn't have dreamed we'd have so much of the ball and be so ineffecive in our usage of it. Who goes to Old Trafford and has 60% of the ball in the second half of a big game? No one. The problem is we had nothing, absolutely nothing in the final third.

Did we really have 60% of the ball in the second half? The overall match possession statistics was 55-45 in United's favor. If we did have 60% in the second half then our possession in the first half must have been a horrific statistic.

 

[ricky1985]

Do you think Fergie wanted us to utterly dominate the ball like we did in the second half? Ok he was happy to keep it tight, and hit us on the break, but he couldn't have dreamed we'd have so much of the ball and be so ineffecive in our usage of it. Who goes to Old Trafford and has 60% of the ball in the second half of a big game? No one. The problem is we had nothing, absolutely nothing in the final third.

Did we really have 60% of the ball in the second half? The overall match possession statistics was 55-45 in United's favor. If we did have 60% in the second half then our possession in the first half must have been a horrific statistic.

I'm guessing to an extent. However, we definitely had 29% possession at the 30 minute mark, and the official UEFA stats confirmed we finished with 48% possession at the end of the game. A bit rough but 60% possession in the second half is about right.

 

[Clrnc]

I don't know why but everytime United attack, we look so easy to get penetrated by them. Its like there is always alot of space for them despite our defensive formation.

Very very lightweight