Filed under: Manchester United, Champions League, Football
Very much the underdogs in Saturday's Champions League Final at Wembley, it is perhaps a little ironic to think that Manchester United, confronted by the all round brilliance of Barcelona, themselves have something of an embarrassment of riches. If you like, a profusion of wingers. Against poor doomed Blackpool last Sunday, United rested their powerful Ecuadorian right winger Antonio Valencia, back and full of running after weeks out with injury - and recalled Anderson, who responded with a spectacular goal.There was of course also that insidious and wily South Korean, Park Ji-Sung, and the swift incisive Portuguese star, Nani. Not to mention probably the best left winger British soccer has produced for so many years in Ryan Giggs, absent against Blackpool, rested at his advanced age, but due to return not on the flank but in central midfield, where he excels.
There is an analogy here with a much younger player, the astonishing Lionel Messi, who began on the flank, but has now moved impatiently to the middle, where he is still able to make light of the increased marking. This will probably mean that David Villa, top scorer for Spain in the World Cup and one of the few Barca players not to be developed at Camp Nou, will operate again not in his natural position at centre forward, but on the flank, while young Pedro, yet another home-grown player who has gone from strength to strength, will play on the right.
For their part, United themselves have a world class attacker in Wayne Rooney, even if, alas, he was a World Cup disaster - Barca's manager, Pep Guardiola, has expressed his concern over the threat which Rooney could pose. Barca strong favourites, then but football is still full of surprises and United are hardly likely to be as inept and innocuous as they were in the FA Cup at Wembley, against Manchester City.
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Predictably, I suppose, though quite ruthlessly, Carlo Ancelotti was promptly defenestrated by the billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich after Chelsea's spineless showing at Everton. Didier Drogba out injured, Ancelloti once again picked the insanely expensive £50 million Fernando Torres, who once again was anonymous. Did Ancellotti dig his own grave by using Torres so often? Still, it was arguably a question of damned if he did, damned if he didn't, once Abramovich had against all form and logic, spent so hyperbolically on the Spaniard. Whoever comes in now at Stamford Bridge will inherit a poisoned chalice. Torres will still be there and Torres must play, though the heavens fall. Is there any true hope of regaining his pace, after a restful summer?
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