VDS Fabio Ferdinand Vidic Evra Valencia Carrick Giggs Park Rooney Chicharito Nani Scholes Have at it lads.
VDS-6 Fabio-6 Ferdinand-5 Vidic-7 Evra-0 Valencia-0.5 Carrick-6 Giggs-6 Park-6 Rooney-6 Chicharito-3 SAF-1
Just not our day....Barca were better....We had to be at our best to beat them...unfortunately we fell short.....
VDS-6 Fabio-6 Ferdinand-5 Vidic-7 Evra-0 Valencia-1 Carrick-6 Giggs-5 Park-6 Rooney - 7 Chicharito-2 Nani - 6 SAF - 0
VDS 6 - Fabio 4 - Ferdinand 6 - Vidic 7 - Evra 3 - Valencia 3 - Carrick 7 - Giggs 5 - Park 6 - Rooney 7 - Chicharito 5 - Nani N/A Scholes N/A
How does a CB get 7s across the board when all the goals came from in front of him or on his side of the pitch?
Huh? He was marking the backpost. Rio was further forward and trying to block the Villa shot. Of course, Nani gave away possession to begin with.
Rio came from his side of the pitch to react to the threat and Vidic didn't. Marking the back post? That is ludicrous. A CB isn't supposed to drop off if the ball is on his side of the pitch. If anything the player who is furthest from the ball takes the angle back across to help out but only in dire straights. Regardless, look at the replays, Vida was not on the post, he was in no man's land, after being targeted, turned and twisted, I can't really blame him for being sheepish - but he hid on that goal. No coincidence at all that Vida/Evra side was broken down for all 3 goals.
Didn't the goal come in the aftermath of a corner. In that scenario, it is not surprising that Vidic was found at the backpost. Again, no Nani giveaway = no goal there.
Good try today fellas. One thing that i was GLAD to see was an end to the cheating tactics by Barca today. They played extremely well and deserved this victory. Believe me, it hurts a lot more if you think you were cheated by a squad of diving, cheating, pieces of shit. Of course there were still some dives, but what do you expect, it's Barca. Just be glad they didn't take it to the next level and rush the ref at every turn. I think it was a mistake to start Hernandez, as i said before the match started. The biggest issue against Barca is the lack of possession in their final 1/3 of the pitch, threatening goal. Thus, guys like Hernandez get no service, no poaching opportunities, etc. An extra mid should have started, or perhaps somehow get Nani on their. Nani = magic, and he should have started in my opinion. Rooney was awesome for me, he is world class.
They created other chances too except the goal with which Vidic dealt pretty well. As for the first two goals the CM and Evra were to be blamed ,once Evra failed to track Messi Inside properly for the second goal and once he came inside to no man's land leaving Pedro free for the First goal. As for the Vidic goal it came from a situation where Nani lost the ball when the defence was still getting back into shape and Rio was closer to the ball than Vidic. It was a wonderful strike in any case and came from pretty deep. And Villa had some pressure atleast. Remember there were strikes from the other side from iniesta and Xavi among other too. Just because they did not score even with less pressure it does not mean that they are forgotten. Plus in the first half Vidic did won the ball many times too attacking it ahead of their attackers.
VDS - 6 maybe should have done better with Messi goal, but some other good saves Fabio - 6.5 mostly ok his wing Ferdinand - 6.5 ok Vidic - 6 some great blocks, poor for Messi goal, had too much work to do owing to lack of midfield cover and watching Evras back Evra - 4 went after Messi owing to no midfield cover allowing Pepe in for first, starting to become our new Gary Neville (wing back is a young mans job) Valencia - 5 poor by his standards Carrick - 6.5 some horrible moments (like the giveaway for their third and being AWOL upfield for their first) but got little support I felt from Giggs who was not mobile enough Giggs - 5 poor by his standards, though as with Carrick asked to do too much Park - 6 lots of effort, faded second and should have been subbed Rooney - 7 played well, great goal, worked hard, though unable to link midfield to Cheech Chicharito - 5 passenger owing to lack of support, though did get caught offside too often, maybe over eager Nani - 5 Scholes - 5 Saf - 2 442 against Barca again? Can understand starting with it as has been our best formation/team of late, but Arsenal game showed the dangers of ceeding an extra man in midfield to a passing side. Didn't sort out the problems from the first half at half time, not compact, no depth - Messi had all the time in the world in between our too rigid and outnumbered banks of four and second half we were just as bad if not worse at defending this.
VDS - 4 - being beaten by a routine shot to the middle of the goal is unforgivable Fabio - 4 - solid but did nothing going forward Ferdinand - 5 - did his job Vidic - 5 - ditto Evra - 2 - offered nothing, caught out of position routinely, costly mistakes Valencia - 3 - poor showing Carrick - 3 - horrible - why the hell would you punt the ball at Nani inside our box??? Giggs - 4 - disappointing Park - 4 - good effort, faded, little in return Rooney - 5 - good goal, effort, in a no-win position as helping the 'midfield' meant isolating Hernandez Chicharito - 4 - decent effort, isolated, caught offside too often Nani - N/A Scholes - N/A
If that cnut Evra did his job then Vidic wouldn't have gotten fcuked so much, Evra in the middle of the pitch on the 1st goal when he should've been on the left back, Evra once gain strolling out to close Messi down. So yea let's blame Vidic and give him a 0
To be honest we never had the squad to beat Barca. We overachieved to get this far. What puzzles me when I watch teams play against Barca is how scared they get. Today our marking and pressuring off the ball was not good. That Messi goal should've never happened. Our lack of depth was evident during the match when Sir Alex waited so long to make a sub. Who could he put in? We needed some bite. We didn't have it on the bench. Just as an aside do you guys really think we are a better team without Ronaldo like a lot of the press has reported? I think we were better in 09. Just my opinion.
None of their goals should have happened. We beat ourselves with individual mistakes and poor performances.
VDS - 4 - Surprising and disappointing. Uncharacterisicly bad positioning by him, the first 2 Barca goals could've been avoided - the first into the short bottom corner, the second low in the middle? Fabio - 6 - I was pleased. We defended quite well on his flank, I thought he was one of our most solid players out there. Well done, lad. Ferdinand - 6 - Not the usual top class Rio-game, but neither our central midfielders nor Evra helped him. I think nobody should blame him, even if Barca were threatening through the middle all the game. Vidic - 6 - I feel for him. It must have been a nightmare to play next to Evra, and while he made some goal-saving tackles, couldn't do the job of two men. Not his fault at all. Evra - 2 - F*cking shit. Terrible. We could have played anyone - seriously, anyone - at left back, but I honestly believe that we would have been better defensively. We were done on his flank, over and over again. A player with this kind of natural fitness, stamina and pace should have his attacker in his pocket, always stay close to him, bully him, get stuck in - but this guy positioned himself soooo bad that it seemed as if someone from a lower league side was thrown on the pitch. He reminded me of Bebe in his first games, he had no idea where to run. Valencia - 3 - Didn't see much of the ball in the attacking third, and even when he had the ball, he was one dimensional. Barca did a good job marking him, he never had the space to speed up or run at them. We shouldn't have kept him on the pitch for the whole game. Carrick - 5 - Against a team of Barcelona's calibre, it was fool-hardy to field a two-man midfield. Neither of our central midfielders could do what they do best, but I thought Carrick did OK considering the circumstances. Giggs - 4 - I was expecting this. I don't blame him, a f*cking legend, magnificent player, epoch-making genious, but I can just repeat myself, it was foolish to expect him to do a two-way job against the best, the really really best players in the world. I think Fergie overrated our midfield against Schalke and a less than impressive Chelsea. What disappoints me even further, is that Ryan Giggs, one of the best to ever play the game, featured in 4 CL finals and never showed what he can really do. Park - 5 - Great shift as always, but should've been subbed when we were chasing the game in the second half. His defensive work is fantastic, but it doesn't mean a lot when he is that ineffective in attack. That's why I have always preferred to see Nani in this game. Rooney - 7 - Fair play to the lad, he excelled. If we saw more of the ball, he could've done even more - I feel he got the maximum out of what he had. Chicharito - 3 - It is not his fault that we could hardly put him through, but it was frustrating that he worsened our possession even more with always being offside. His running was totally ineffective.