Sunday 24 May 2009

Barcelona cannot deal with Manchester United

author: Terry Venables
source: The Sun
date: 23 May 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com






I expect Manchester United to beat Barcelona in Rome on Wednesday to retain their crown as Kings of Europe. And that is regardless of the line-up Alex Ferguson names for each match.

There has been much talk about the teams Fergie may or may not field in his final two games of the season. Such speculation is almost pointless. The astronomic abundance of ability at his disposal is so great that whoever he sends out will be good enough to claim victory. The stark reality is that, when it comes to Manchester United, there is no such thing as a 'weakened team'. I am pretty confident that, come 10pm at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday night, Pep Guardiola and his Barcelona boys will know it too.

United will not only have better players than the Catalans on the pitch. They will also have them on the bench. As Arsene Wenger has found this season, teams get you plaudits but it is squads who get you trophies. At the moment, there is no better group of players in the world than Manchester United's.

While Barcelona have been left reeling by the suspensions of influential full-backs Daniel Alves and Eric Abidal, United have almost shrugged off Darren Fletcher's harsh ban as an occupational hazard. While Barca fret over injuries to Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta, United are considering leaving Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez out of their starting line-up. It highlights the gulf in class and squads.

If centre-back Rafael Marquez, as expected, does not return against United, his absence - along with those already mentioned - would leave United holding the whip hand. It would also explain why Ferguson will leave Berbatov and Tevez on the bench and start Cristiano Ronaldo at centre-forward.

Berbatov and Tevez do not have the pace to trouble snail-like Yaya Toure, who may have to fill in at the back. If that is the case, it could be meat and drink for Ronaldo. It was a role Ron played so spectacularly, and to such devastating effect, against Arsenal in the semi-final. Wayne Rooney has become such an accomplished left-sided player. And with Park Ji Sung on the right, Fletcher's suspension may prove a silver lining for Fergie.

Rome will be a place for heroes. It will also be a place for unsung heroes. In the absence of Fletcher, Park and Anderson, who are tipped to fill one of the available midfield berths next to Michael Carrick and the ageless Ryan Giggs, will certainly provide one of those. Anderson will bring the aggression and energy in the middle of the park that is normally supplied by Fletcher.

Park has been a slow-burner at United. He is good on the ball and does the dirty work appreciated by team-mates but often overlooked by fans. He can get into the box and score the odd vital goal. Along with Rooney, he will act as the perfect foil for Ronaldo, whose pace is bound to frighten Barcelona - especially given their injury and suspension worries.

The expected midfield three of Giggs, Carrick and Anderson will be instructed to break up Barca's midfield passing combination before setting the likes of Park, Ronaldo and Rooney off on their rapid attacks. Counter-attacks are usually built on the 18-yard box. In Rome, I suspect they may start on the halfway line.

I would say Barca are more frightened of United than United are frightened of Barca. With good reason. I just cannot see how Barca will cope with United. Whoever Fergie decides to field.


read the full and original article here


Read more:
Barcelona are overrated
Barcelona Is Winning With Style
There was no referee conspiracy

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

this man is an idiot for me, he probably did not watch matches from BArca nand MAn utd recently so my conclusion is one score is open for both sides...



hidalgo4

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Kiki said...

We shall see!

Anonymous said...

Hah, i bet this guy haven't seen a Barca-match this season.

CosmicKite said...

Venables was the manager of Barcelona so he will have seen both teams play many times this season.

Ramzi said...

Pep, you published this article before on the Blog!

Under the article, there are some links "Read More". There is "Barcelona are overrated" link. I think this is a copy. Or may be its just being the same EPL ignorance... Never mind...

skanjos said...

somebody give a beer to this guy.....england reporters are funny

Anonymous said...

"ageless ryan giggs"? did i read it wrong? ryan giggs is an old overrated good for nothing player who i felll should be given a stick befor going to the field... n how on earth did he win the PFA bes player award? ok...maybe it was to console the old lad n persuade him to retire... sylvinho sperforms better than giggs..

Anonymous said...

And why would yayatoure play centreback? doesnt he know we have puyol+pique ?

or do we have to put puyol on the right?

plus "United will not only have better players than the Catalans on the pitch"

wow.. i mean iniesta alone is better than all of the united midfield together...

what a waste of an article

pep said...

The good thing is that Venables also said that Drogba would kind of destroy us...

same ANONYMOUS who wrote the previous comment said...

guys just read the comments on this post....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/mysun/comment/view.page?storyId=2444957&submissionId=908262&nav=jump&pageNo=1

it is really sad and if, god forbid, barca loses then they'll call us overrated n good for nothing...i'm very much confident that we will win but if we didnt have injury as well as suspension problems i'm 110% sure the cup would come to the FCB museum.

same ANONYMOUS who wrote the comment before PEP'S said...

MANCHESTER UNITED= OVERGLORIED FILTH

i'm PISSED :@

sashi said...

just cant wait for 27th. hope we win the game n put a full stop to the "overrated" tag ppl love giving to us. even though we lose, touch wood, hopefully we should make United run for their lives n sweat so damn hard for the victory. atleast then we get the respect we deserve from stupid English reporters. i doubt it even then.

hope we murder United come wednesday.

LeónDragón said...

...there was a nike commercial picture not long ago,showing guardiola as a player,and there were the words written..."let the game do the talking"...hope,answers will be given on the pitch...ONE LOVE!!!!!...my feelings make me confident that barca can do it...loved by many,respected by all...

Anonymous said...

All you must do is look the the number of trophies which Terry Venables has won in his career.

It tells everything. The guy is a total football failure. Pep is already more successful than him, and it have been his first year.

per said...

"United will not only have better players than the Catalans on the pitch."Piss off!

jordy said...

guys we have to be honest. man u will be the most difficult match of the season. without our key player alves and marquez or milito, abidal..also iniesta and henry are question marks.. it will be extremely difficult. I know it won't happen but I would like to see puyol in the center. he's got some pace. Venables is right, toure is to slow for CR7 as well as pique. I would make me happy to see yaya ruling the midfield. but we have no defenders left.. we need his strength over there!maybe we should consider playing caceres on the right wing. pff alves what a stupid card against chelsea..
Let us be humble before the big match and leave the big words for man u. they are favourits.

RUMS said...

From a different point of view, i have to say Manu do have a deeper squad compared to us.

We do not have that much quality reserves that we can count on to make a difference in injuries crisis.

While our first team is better than Manu in my opinion, our second string players , for most part, arent up to standard if you compare it with Manu's.

They can afford to have players like tevez , giggs , scholes in their bench.

Of course, i'll still bet on us winning XD

Amar said...

man u doesnt have a better squad. they have a bigger squad because its easier to find players for the type of football they play.. that is boring type.

u can find hundreds of parks or carricks... but how many xavis are there? how many people can replace iniesta?

Barca has quality
man u has quantity.

and yes venebles is a retarded moron.

zealot said...

"Berbatov and Tevez do not have the pace to trouble snail-like Yaya Toure"

An observation of an idiot. So Drogba is also snail-like? Typical English arrogance, showing pride for having non-English mercenaries carry their flags.

Smogen said...

the problem is off course that Barca have an entire defence missing.

Abidal-Milito-Marquez-Alves is out.
That would almost be like Man U playing without

Evra-Vidic-Ferdinand-Brown

and I bet that would hurt even for Man U.

On the other hand, I agree that Man U had better reserves than Barca.

ekar said...

WHAAAT!?? THIS IS DUMB
"THE SNAIL-LIKE YAYA TOURE"!??! EXCUSE ME BUT THE DUDE IS FASTER THAN RIBERY!!!

RUMS said...

Amar. Thats my point. Our first team is very good , probably the best. But thing is if our key players get injured, theres no way we can replace them.

Also while i wouldnt say park and carrick etc are the best, i wouldnt say they arent quality players.

The thing about Manu is that they can replace people easily , well easier than we can do that to ours and thats their advantage.

Also Milto has been out for the entire season so we shouldnt even bother listing him as a player of us for now lol.

Marc4barca said...

don't anyone here and those reporters see that alves and abidal suspensions are good. alves still doesn't know how to defend and it was proven that he loses his cool to quickly like in chelsea and his crosses are useless until we get a guy who can head the ball in the middle, abidal gets lazy on the the dead ball situations and is kinda wild, he gives way too many fouls. slyvinho and puyol on the wings are ok cause puyol has been much better on the wings than in cb and yaya does't need speed to stop ronaldo, this guy will make ronaldo sweat and he has pique to help out. slyvinho has played few matches this season but this guy doesn't give way fouls and we have a good defensive record with him playing and he can also give what abidal can't, attacking presence and a good shot. iniesta will make it, henry will make it and we will beat manu 3-2, this is where messi prove the haters wrong and destroy the english. two weeks rest, he is ready to make the overconfident evra get sent off.

memo said...

pure garbage!

Carrer de Corsega said...

This is a public case of penis envy. He is just jealous of the fact that Pep in his 1st season can win what he himself couldn't win. He was the runner-up in '86, but Pep will be the winner in '09.

Nzuu said...

wow, i don't know what to say. what I know is that we can beat Man united and they can beat us. But the certainly don't have better players than us, they have more but not better. If Xavi and Iniesta are rolling then we can roll :) and messi was just charging his batteries after a long season. oh ya, i know he will be rolling on wednesday. Barca For the win. I love this team

Nzuu said...

I acknowledge that we have vital defensive absences like Alves and Abidal, but Barcelona's main advantage is ball possession and as long as we have more of it (above 60%) then we decrease the number of chances our opponent make.

On top of the fact that our defenders attack and our attackers defend i.e. we do everything as a team, we have Xavi and iniesta who are the ones who ensure that we have more of the ball and to increase the fluidity of from defense to attack. I am confident that Iniesta and Messi will be feeling it and Messi will silence any doubters of his abilities. Forca Barca!!!! The Final is Here :))))

rafouka said...

FCBarcelona=(xavi and inesta)


these two r the sole of barca.

Anonymous said...

i would like to see caceres get a chance to prove himself. He could be the saving grace of the final if he is on form i would perhaps not play him in the center though. Possibly on the left with puyol on the right. But with faith him n pique in the center could be quite a nice combo. None the less Forca Barca we will dominate!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

hey!!terry venables is a good guy indeed.....this is from wikipedia saying
Other interests Of TeRRy VenABlES

Venables is also well known for his business interests, most notably with English clubs Queen's Park Rangers (as Managing Director), Tottenham Hotspur (as Chief Executive) and Portsmouth (as Chairman). However, on 14 January 1998 he was disqualified by the high court from acting as a company director for seven years under section 8 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 for mismanagement of four companies - the London drinking club Scribes West Ltd, Edenote plc, Tottenham Hotspur plc and Tottenham Hotspur Football and Athletic Company Ltd.[13] The case was brought by the Department of Trade and Industry who cited instances of bribery, lying, deception, manipulation of accounts and taking money that should have been given to creditors.[14]
In addition to his widespread business interests, Venables also co-authored four novels with writer Gordon Williams and is credited as co-creator of the ITV detective series Hazell. Having been a football pundit for BBC since the mid-80s, he left for ITV in 1994, following a legal dispute with the corporation over allegations made against him in a Panorama programme. In 1990 Venables co-devised the board game, "Terry Venables invites you to be... The Manager". This is a football management game and is a cross between the Game of Life, Risk and Trivial Pursuit. In 2002 Venables recorded a single for the World Cup together with the band Rider. England Crazy reached number 46 in the UK charts. In May 2006, Venables guided the England Legends and Celebrities squad to victory in the charity Soccer Aid programme.[3]

Anonymous said...

and this some more.....look at his scoring charts as a midfielder who was good like SHiT....(don't delete dis comment)...
Youth career
1958–1960 Chelsea
Senior career1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1960–1966 202 (26)
1966–1969 115 (19)
1969–1974 179 (19)
1974–1976 14 (0)
1976 ? (?)
National team
1964 England 2caps (0)goals
Teams managed
1976–1980
1980–1984
1984–1987
1987–1991
1994–1996
1997–1998
1998–1999
2000–2001
2002–2003
Crystal Palace 1976-1980
Queens Park Rangers 1980-1984
FC Barcelona 1984-1987(was SACKED)
Tottenham Hotspur 1987-1991
England 1994-1996
Australia 1997-1998
Crystal Palace 1998-1999
Middlesbrough (joint role with Bryan Robson) 2000-2001
Leeds United 2002-2003

Rupesh said...

This guy(TeRRy VenABlES) is an Idiot.

Barca quality is better than any other side that includes MAN U also.

Its Barca destiny(remember iniesta's late goal against Chelsea) to win champions league this year and make it treble.

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