Well, it’s about an hour and a half until kick-off and this is about as nervous as I’ve been all season. I really think this is our season-defining match coming up here and this is my reason why- we’re in the middle of our shittiest run of form of the entire season. In the past few weeks we’ve dropped more points and put in some of the worst performances I’ve seen since the Van Nistelrooy era. Granted, there has been some unbelievably dodgy referring in the past while, but it can’t be the only excuse. The team has failed to put points on the board when it mattered. As of now, our season peaked when Hargreaves put us ahead against Arsenal. It’s been pretty much downhill from there.
Rooney and Vidic are two big question marks. Vidic’s absence has shown just how important he has become to our team. Ferdinand gets most of the credit, but Nemanja seems to be the one that makes the real difference. He isn’t as error prone as Rio and knowledge that he is guarding the backline seems to give players like Ronaldo, Rooney and Hargreaves the ability to get forward and create scoring chances. That’s been our biggest problem the past few games. If United can go out tonight and create 15 really good scoring opportunities, we will convert two of them and win the game. United have to attack and not leave it to the second half.
The optimal scenario, for me anyway, is for us to snake an early goal and then draw Barcelona onto us, but we will need somebody up front to hold up the ball and wait for the defenders. Barcelona play a real pressure-cooker style of defense with men closing you down on the ball as soon as you get it. In terms of positional sense and man-marking Barca aren’t as good, but they close down well and it seemed to affect us in the last game. Barca will definitely be up for this one, the Champions League is really all they have left at this point.
Ronaldo shouldn’t start up front, he needs to come in off the wing. I think Tevez can really be the game-breaker today. He is the footballing equivalent of a power forward in basketball (albeit he’s about 5″ 8). His presence can upset defenders and draw them out of position. Additionally, he boasts the best ability in the league to go from top speed to a complete stop and he uses this to his advantage in games when he sets the tone. Tevez can Barca a new asshole with his runs and ability to hold up the ball. Working closely in tandem with Anderson, whose battling presence will be required to stifle Barca’s midfield, Tevez will create opportunity for Ronaldo to arrive late in danger areas and play the crucial ball at the crucial moment. At least that’s how I see it anyway.
I don’t see it going to extra time. Worst case scenario is Barca scoring early and then parking 10 men behind the ball. Don’t know if they’d be able to hold that, but I’m also unsure whether we could score two. An early goal will set the tone tonight. I just hope we’re the ones that get it.
