Millwallawayveteran1988 said:cleavers said:Sorry, but that is just rubbish, from the restart we pressed Barca in their half, at every opportunity, we forced 3 corners in as many minutes, and created a number of chances, a couple of very good ones, we played well.Chippy_boy said:The ONLY reason we got even slightly back into it in the 2nd half was because Barca took their foot off the gas being 2-0 up.
We finally did what we set out to do at the start, with the same 11 that started, the same formation, and the same tactics, the change at 60 minutes improved us further (should have been done at 45 or before for me), and we got a goal, only to then lose a player, so we had to be more cautious again.
Agree with this. There may have been an element of Barca thinking we were totally shit after our first half performance and they could almost score at ease but the change was down to a change in our work rate and desire which once again during the first half was totally missing.
don't get sucked into this lads it came from the independent a paper that hates us it is not accurate not relevant to this year . if you follow it to conclusion it will end utd don't need to pay big wages they just want to be part of historyjonmcity said:whp.blue said:SambaStyle said:Hopefully can get rid of about 8 players and get a real good team.
City pay the highest wages, why aren't they up there with Bayern, Barca and Real? Shameful.
May have something to do with the fact we pay very good money to very very average players like Fernando Milner Clichy
Proof wages dont give you the best team. United, are currently shelling out £214.8m
mosssideblue said:Millwallawayveteran1988 said:cleavers said:Sorry, but that is just rubbish, from the restart we pressed Barca in their half, at every opportunity, we forced 3 corners in as many minutes, and created a number of chances, a couple of very good ones, we played well.
We finally did what we set out to do at the start, with the same 11 that started, the same formation, and the same tactics, the change at 60 minutes improved us further (should have been done at 45 or before for me), and we got a goal, only to then lose a player, so we had to be more cautious again.
Of course it does and in the 1st 15 minutes we were doing it, not with the same success as the 2nd half but we were doing ok. Then after the goal we started to sit back too much. Dzeko and Aguero were still pressing and both ran like mad 1st half but it became easy for Barca to play round them because the rest of the team stopped pressing with them for the next half hour. It's obviously the in thing to blame 442 but anyone who thinks playing one upfront would have stopped them pulling us all over and having more possession is deluded. The fact is most our better performances whilst playing one upfront over the last 18 months have been when Dzeko has played as the lone striker.
Remember what Arsenal did to us in the 1st half when we had Silva behind Aguero? They pressed us high up the pitch and stopped us playing out from the back. They had a man tight on Silva in the middle and forced us to go long to our 5 foot 6 striker. As a result it was the least I've seen Silva touch the ball for us in a Premiership game. Silva playing there doesn't offer the midfield anymore protection than having 2 strikers working hard does. Yes get him on the ball and he'll keep it snd make things happen but as Arsenal showed it becomes difficult to get out and Barca press much better than Arsenal. Obviously I'm not suggesting Aguero shouldn't start because he's a genius and has to play but he needs someone with him against Barca whether thst is Dzeko or Bony I don't mind. Dzeko won plenty in the air against Barca and helped us get on the ball high up the pitch enough times. The fact Nasri did very little with it or then Milner or Fernando can't pick a pass out like Yaya is nowt to do with 442. Not saying Pellers did nothing wrong either because you need legs in midfield against Barcs so why he picked Ferbando ahead of Dinho was baffling to say the least. The most frustrating thing was the red card with almost 20 mins left because I'd have fancied us to create at least a chance or 2.Not much 442 or Pellers can do about that though and ee still have a small chance in the 2nd leg.
Agree with this. There may have been an element of Barca thinking we were totally shit after our first half performance and they could almost score at ease but the change was down to a change in our work rate and desire which once again during the first half was totally missing.
Doesn't this provide an argument to say Pellers got it right and it was only after a rocket up the arse at half time did we start to play. The issue then being the players not the manager????
Chris in London said:One of the frustrating things about the second half is that we showed that we can live with Barca. For the first 25 minutes of the second half we were the better side. Not in terms of ability, but in terms of appetite. To my mind there was probably at least an element of Barca thinking 'what we have, we hold' after they had turned around 2-0 ahead, but they didn't hold us, which is the important point. Then, when we were down to 10 men and the tie was there to be killed off, again they couldn't kill us off.
Make no mistake, they are a better side than us by some distance, as the first half showed, but the second half also showed that they are not so far ahead as to be out of sight.
FantasyIreland said:We live to fight another day.
quiet_riot said:FantasyIreland said:We live to fight another day.
We do, but I just can't see us going there and scoring 2, possibly needing more - can you?