I personally rate Fabregas as at least on par with Sneijder but hey, thats just me

People forget Fabregas is only 24 and was probably already the Premeir League's best winger when he was just 21/22




Barca's pressing game is great, works 90% of the time but as soon as a team manages to break free from that first wave of pressure, they get a free 20/30 yard run at their defence and they usually dont cope very well with that

Its all down to possession of the football – as the old cliché goes if the other team doesn’t have the ball they can’t score therefore the law of odds would suggest that if barca have 60/70% possession each game they will a) create more chances and b) reduce the amount of chances they concede.

People say there defence is their weaklink which is true, but a defence of danny alves, Puyol, pique and whoever they chose to put out at left back is still a top back four.

Alves is another important player for them – again people will criticise his defending but he is so quick and strong he is very hard to beat – when they played Madrid earlier this year he had was unable to get forward that much as mourinho put ronaldo out on the left but he defended really well and Ronnie hardly had a kick

winger

I meant playmaker of course

Barca's pressing game is great, works 90% of the time but as soon as a team manages to break free from that first wave of pressure, they get a free 20/30 yard run at their defence and they usually dont cope very well with that

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True, but as I say this is much easier said than done – you still need to take the chance that is given to you and even then it usually seems that barca just up their game and rather than simply retain possession to stop you scoring go and actually create chances at will

Again the Madrid game was a good example – Madrid equalised and then barca just went up the other end and scored

I dont think Madrid are far off Barca...at all

I dont think Barca have beaten madrid comfortably in their alst 4/5 meetings. Had it not been for Messi, Madrid may well have won all of them ties

With Barca, they dont have a plan B. 95% of the time they dont need one but they do sometimes struggle and are definitely not unbeatable

>>NOwadays, Id say City have the best chance of ebating Barca out of the english sides imo

agreed unless Essien comes back fully fit and on form for the later CL rounds. You need a player like that to make it somewhat level in the centre of the pitch. Then I might say Chelsea in 4-2-3-1 might be best suited to match them.

City have a solid back 4, play a formation with 3 CDMs (De Jong, Toure, Barry...usually) and then leave one up front

Plus with Mankini being italian, he loves his clean sheets.

Barca would struggle to break down that team but 9 times out of 10, I reckon they'd still win

With Barca, they dont have a plan B. 95% of the time they dont need one but they do sometimes struggle and are definitely not unbeatable

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This is where I think fergie has been quite naïve the past two times we have played them – we should have in my opinion parked the bus, dropped off and denied them space in our half. They get frustrated and keep trying the same thing and it becomes easier to defend.

Madrid have done quite well against them recently – just a lack of discpline let them down – man marking messi worked really well but you would expect them to be a match for them considering the money they have spent and the players they have

The only manager who has really worked out how to beat Barca (a handful of others have beaten them, but luck more than anything) is Mourinho. He has, regardless of which team he is managing played the same way vs Barca

4 defenders, 2 CDMs (one to sit , the other to press) and then one striker with 3 off him

Pepe (sit), Diarra (press)
Cambiasso (sit), Motta (press)
Makelele (sit), Essien (press)

For some strange reason, Fergie decided to abandon playing any CDMs (even Carrick kept going forward) against Barca at Wembley. Strange

"The only manager who has really worked out how to beat Barca (a handful of others have beaten them, but luck more than anything) is Mourinho."

Hiddink cracked it but got robbed by the worst ref in european history.

redconn (U5676)

Michael Essien is finished as a top class footballer. No one comes back from 3 serious knee injuries no one.

This is where I think fergie has been quite naïve the past two times we have played them – we should have in my opinion parked the bus, dropped off and denied them space in our half. They get frustrated and keep trying the same thing and it becomes easier to defend.
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Im not sure that would work. Only inter managed to win by trying that but they had to rely on an offside goal to do it.

Their major strength is their ability to flood the midfield. if our CBs and strikers are prepare to play in the midfield their numerical advantage can be nullify. Ive seen some cr@ppy spanish teams tryin to do that and they are some what successful. it forces them to change their game and some times resort to long balls. they cant win because their defenders cant defend. with a CB pairing like Rio and Jones we may be able to pull it off.

Hiddink cracked it but got robbed by the worst ref in european history.
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That was mostly mourinho’s team though – Drogba bullied their back four all night long himself

yeah – basically what im trying to say is that fergie should have swallowed a bit of pride and opted to negate barca rather than shock them by going all guns blazing from the start – saying that it almost worked in rome with park missing a great chance.

Dont think it helped our cause how VDS made his only mistakes in a United shirt (more or less) in our 2 finals against them.

In Rome, he got beaten at near post by Etoo

In London, he got beaten at near post by Pedro, beaten by a pretty average long shot by Messi

Good point benze – incredibly annoying considering that west brom blunder aside he had been near faultless all season

@comment by The_Bossman1

it was a hypothetical

"The only manager who has really worked out how to beat Barca (a handful of others have beaten them, but luck more than anything) is Mourinho."

Rafa did it

No Gibson?

Tbh, Anderson, Carrick, Giggsy, Park have all played CM and failed against Barca, maybe it's time we gave Gibson a shot

You never know