₦airaland Forum

If this fletcher starts next week, we're finished.

Important match for Fletcher. I really hope he gains alot from this match to perform well against Barca.

coogar:
what makes you think fletcher hasn't been playing indoor football @ carrington all these weeks. have you forgotten he featured against schalke, played a reserves game weeks ago? if he completes 90 mins tomorrow without issues, i expect him to start against barcelona. if he has been training at full pelt in the last fortnight, then i will expect him to play in wembley. besides,  there's no chance fergie will leave fletcher(a fellow scot) out of the champions league final for the 3rd time. 08, 09 and now 11? no way in hell.

Indoor football for a whole season will not adequately prepare you for a final against Barcelona. He didnt play 90mins against Schalke. Training full pelt would not prepare you for a CL final. No way on earth would SAF consider the fact that Fletcher is a fellow scot before deciding on his line-up. NEVER, EVER. Also it wasnt SAF that left him out of '09, he was suspended. In terms of who plays as the destroyer, i honestly dont know, but SAF is the best in the business and Im willing to accept whatever decision he makes if Fletcher plays or not. Im sure he would know best seeing his condition day in day out.

I personally think Fletcher has zero chance of starting the CL Final. No way his fitness and match sharpness will be ready for a match of that magnitude.

I reckon Baba might spring a surprise on us (and Barcelona) and start Gibson.

Different teams, different styles. We cant really play them the same way at the highest level.

What an awful list.

StarBoard:
@TA,
I was talking about Barcelona being porous defensively.

My mistake, I didnt read it properly.

I don't think we're porous defensively. I think the weakness of our midfield is what exposes our defense. I would take our group of defense and GK ahead of any other in football at the moment really.

I think people need to get used to the fact that our midfield at the moment is Carrick + one other. And I also think you're going overboard with the criticism because he's such an important player for the club in that role. He may have been poor in a few games but he has been a very good player since he's joined and been our most consistent midfielder this season.(not including wingers)

Well, I guess we'll see what Baba decides for the final. Fletcher has no chance considering he didnt play today or even on the bench. No way he'll get the fitness and intensity required to play the final. Anderson's form is still too erratic.

I'm pretty delighted about the league win alone. Im around alot of Arsenal fans and liverpool fans and you should have heard some predict we wouldnt be in the top 4 at the start of the season. .

Champions

Fantastic achievement by Sir Alex to win yet another Premier league title. Amazing.

Well done Ryan Giggs - 12 league titles

Kus wan kill us ooooo!

Kus, Fabio, Vidic, Rio, Evans, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Chicharito

Apparently,

We getting heavily linked with many new players as usual. One person in particular I would love us to sign is the guy we're being linked with today, Roma's Daniele De Rossi. I would be beside myself with joy if we signed him.

It was the least they could do with a £70M winter injection I guess.

Naturally, we have to buy to replace the players retiring but someone like Anderson has shown has something to work with. He could be really good if he gets a proper injury free run in the side. Im pretty happy with Smalling,Hernandez and the twins for the full back positions. I think its only really VDS and Scholes we need to worry about replacing at the moment, Baba has always liked continuity so I don't expect wholesale changes, after all this team has just got to the CL final and about to win a premier league title. A maximum of 3 new faces would be expected in the summer. Keeper, Midfielder and maybe another winger or creative attacker. My own personal preference would include a Berbatov replacement

montelik:
We can't try to play d same setup and players we did against Schalke and Chelsea with Barca. They could embarrass us and I don't mean like d rome 09 final, I mean 5-0 Real Madrid thrashing type embarrassment. At d same time we have to learn our lesson from Rome 09. We can't simply obsess about containing them and rely only on counter attacking, we have to have a plan B if we concede first, we need to have strong attacking outlets when we do have possession and we have to at least try to limit d amount of possession they achieve by keeping d ball well ourselves.

Whichever way one looks at it, we have to play 3 in central midfield. Who those will be and how they will be setup is debatable. Next is d who will lead d line and who are those who will provide support so we don't just surrender possession when we get d ball and also so we carry a constructive attacking threat rather than simply lumping d ball forward.

You cant say on one hand we cant obsess about containing them and then advocate such a change formation in the way we have been playing lately which is doing exactly that, obsess about containing them. Baba might play Rooney upfront on his own but we all know that is not his favoured position. Once we do that we miss the direct running of Hernandez which stretches teams and allows Rooney to be so distructive in the hole between midfield and attack. Without a doubt we will probably have 3 in the middle but the third midfielder will be Rooney or Park when necessary, allowing Hernandez to keep the Barca defence on their toes by playing off the shoulder of the last defender. I would be really surprised, injury permitting if its not the team that faced Chelsea (save for Evra and possibly Fletcher)

Busquets is extremely important to the way Barcelona play. I always intentionally watch their midfield when Barca play and without him keeping the play ticking over, the midfield isnt as fluid or dynamic. He wont play the incisive passes as he doesnt need to but both Xavi and Iniesta in particular need him to keep the dynamics of their midfield. as well as winning the ball back of course but that is a small part of his game. I think if we can stop the link between Busquets and Xavi/Iniesta we have a chance to stop them being creative.

Im not convinced we have the personnel to beat them but I only say, in a one off game, anything can happen.

I dont think Anderson can start this match and Im unsure about Giggs/Fletcher. Carrick is the only 100% certainly which shows the weakness we have in midfield. I really think Park will start though.

Very hard to say, but I think with the way SAF has been lining up the team, he will start with the same team that played against Chelsea but with Rooney marking Busquets.

Im not sure Fletcher will be ready to start but he will definitely be involved at some stage. Unlikely Anderson starts, definitely see Park starting this match and hopefully he makes up for his poor performance in the last final.

It was in the news lastnight that SAF was close to joining Arsenal in '86 as they came first with the job offer.

http://aggbot.com/link.php?id=13444691&r=tw&c=46

Thank God for Walter Smith!

It was obvious H.Webb wasnt going to give us a single decision in the match. I wont complain as we didnt need it but he really bottled many decisions that should have gone for us.

slimshay:
Smalling is better dan Djourou? Jisox!! Ya'll nigg@s aint got s#!t on Silas. Una sabi punish unaself o!

People sha won't listen, in what universe does someone complain about quality and still advocate replacing the main star with the understudy?

Congrats to Manyoubeshyte anyways. They deserve it.

Thanks. I dont know about Smalling being better but you were favourites to sign him before we stole him from you so he must have been very highly regarded by Wenger.

Also,people should remember 14 straight home wins and just 2 points dropped at home all season.

mbulela:
the scoreline did not reflect the gulf in quality on display.

Honestly it really should have been 3/4 or even 5.

So proud of that performance.

Performance of Champions really. Thoroughly deserved.

Hernandez - What else can be said about him?
Giggs - The words dont exist to describe this guy.
Park - Head and shoulders above everyone in the first half.

Defence even with Evans fantastic.
VDS - I love you.

Annoying we didnt score all the chances we had, we were simply better and played some very good football today. Hopefully we can wrap it up against Blackburn.

VDS; Fabio, Ferdinand, Vidic, O Shea; Valencia, Giggs, Carrick, Park; Rooney, Hernandez

Likely lineup.

Early rumours say Evra is injured so wont play.

I think Hernandez will start ahead of Berbatov. He's the only one that can stretch defences in the team.

Im guessing it'll be more of the champs lge lineup that started the OT match.

DOuble post

Young lads and Baba

Few more