Vidic

SFraser

I left it a couple of days but it still didn't turn up.

What a fucking hero Vidic was for us. For a long time he was practically a one man army. Of all the amazing Vidic performances I have seen I don't think I have seen one quite like the performance he put in against Barcelona.

He made the captain armband proud, and after seeing him close to tears at the end of the game I am shit scared we might lost him.

But what a fucking performance. For 90 minutes Nemanja Vidic was what Manchester United was all about. It was close to Keano in Rome. A privilage and a heartbreak to watch him try.

We love you Nemanja.

MacMUFC

He was good. Rooney had a better game though, so i'm not sure what you're shouting about. One amazing tackle in the box, but partially at fault for the first goal and possibly second, and then an embarrassing nutmeg by Messi thay left him on the ground.

Yeah, he's had better games. Rooney deserves this thread for crying out loud.

SFraser

You are a fucking idiot.

VoetbalWizard

Vidic was good.

Messi still left his arse spinning though.

Lynk

Ferdinand was pretty shocking I thought.

phelans shorts

Keano in Rome?

I presume you mean Turin, otherwise you're a bit of a fool.

Lynk

Could've done with Keano in both legs...would've been hillarious to see how busquets would react.

kietotheworld

Because he disagrees with you? How do you know its not you who is the fucking idiot? Given that he backed his points up with actual events from the game, and you just had a little emotional outburst filled with hyperbole over Vidic, I'd say that's a bit more likely.

TheHorse'sMouth

Good thing Vidic wasn't told to purely man-mark Messi as was suggested. Reckon he'd have been sent off if he was.

cw1984

Vidic has had many amazing games for us but that was not one of them. He made some brilliant last ditch tackles but he was also caught out quite a few times.

I don't really blame him or Rio though. They were given no protection whatsoever and on a number of occasions had to step into the midfield to make the challenge.

Mick1991

Rooney was the only one that didn't look out of place with the likes of Xavi et al around.

cw1984

Indeed. He was the stand out performer in our side.

Wibble

Evra was the defender who had a shocker. The CBs were also left exposed by a defensive midfielder who was out of his depth. Carrick just isn't good enough at this level.

VoetbalWizard

there's fuck all carrick can do when he's outnumber 3 to 1.

i like to hammer carrick, but he wasn't really at fault. He didn't look out of place.

Put chavvy and iniesta next to carrick and lads would want to spend 30 million to buy him.

Wibble

He was out of his depth. We looked far better once a slow aged Scholes came on. A top quality DM (or preferably 2) would have taken much of the pressure off the CB's. Rio and Vidic were screwed either way. Come out to harass Messi et al and you leave space behind you which what they love. Stay where you are and we saw what happened. Our defense, Evra apart, bear little or no blame. Midfield is where we lost the game. Only Valencia and possibly Nani is good enough at this level and Valencia had the worst case of stage fright anyway. You couldn't imagine Keane or Robson in their prime leaving the defense so exposed.

Wibble

Carrick worth 30 mill with better players around him?

amolbhatia100

And he put in a couple of amazing tackles on Messi too. There was this one (not sure if it was on Messi) last ditch tackle early on which was just magnificent.

He was simply given no protection. Given that he wasn't his performance was admirable I thought.

amolbhatia100

204Red

It says something when Fabio was the only defender who didn't look completely lost at times.

amolbhatia100

The defenders (barring Evra) were not lost. The midfield kept giving Barca players the freedom of space to run at our defense. They're not superhumans. Get Rooney, Nani and Valencia (not having a turd of a day) running consistently with loads of space at Pique and Mascherano and they'll rip them apart.

cw1984

Agree with this.

Jonno

The worrying thing is, did anyone expect him to actually keep up with Barca before this game? I certainly didn't, and I love the little guy. But his form has been there for all to see in the second half of the season, the guy has had a poor 2011.

amolbhatia100

Same here. Maybe this was one occasion Fergie needed to take a brave decision and didn't. Usually you expect your big players to turn it around it big games but I genuinely never expected him to have a good game against Barca.

Jonno

I would have loved to have seen Fabio/Rafael at LB/RB but I could understand why Fergie didn't dare do it. Maybe next season though we will see it a little more

Boss

Did make up for when Messi put him on his backside as this saved a almost certain goal.

I'm always right

Did well, but Keano's Turin, fuck me!

Rooney was our best player, the one that truly stood out and he still wasn't close to Keano's Turin.

Boss

Agreed, apparently you're an idiot to think that.

Vidic looked like he was shitting himself at times to be honest.

He hates people running at him.

Same with Eto'o Torres, Kaka.

I'm glad he never went up against Henry in his prime.

Dion

Vidic was fantastic for us, he was shitting himself because he had the two best midfielders in the world unchallenged feeding 3 of the most potent forwards in the world with a combined total of nearly 100 goals this season, all without a left back. He looked much more confident than Ferdinand, which is surprising given Ferdinand was flanked by the composed and excellent Fabio.

Rooney was our best player but Vidic wasn't far behind, nowhere close to Keane in Turin but then those are once in a generation performances.

Mihajlovic

Seriously man, wtf?

Boss

I'm not saying Vidic isn't a world class defender or one of the best we ever had.

He just has a significant weakness and it gets exposed in some big games.

He's not perfect. Nor should we demand he should be.

Cling Bak

Vidic? How? The first; he comes across to try and save the day, but where the fuck was Evra?!

The second; what does he do wrong? Allowing the shot? From that distance, it's better than going diving in. Hindsight is great but the eventual shot wasn't special. Perhaps not seeing it until late, but Van der Sar should've done a lot better.

MacMUFC

I've only seen the goals once. At the end of the day, somethings gone wrong if a player sneaks in behind you on your blindside. Maybe I need to see it again.

Exactly, close him down for crying out loud!!! They backed off and were extremely slow to come out, just daring Messi to shoot. You dont have to dive in, you just stay on your feet and get as tight as possible, closing down angles for passing and shooting. Ferdinand is good at this, well they both are in truth, how many goals outside the box do you see against us in comparison to other teams? You dont need 'heroic' JT last ditch tackles when you simply close the angle for the opposing player. This made the goal even more frustrating.

I'm always right

Watch again, he actually pulls off Vida. Evra's man is Messi.

Quite funny that Evra is being blamed for staying with Messi and is also blamed for making the opposite decision on the second goal

SFraser

Yes that is the man Evra chooses to mark, leaving a massive gap at left back and Vidic having to defend against the man on the ball AND the runner at the same time.

Which he very nearly pulls off.

amolbhatia100

Anyone would given such little protection.

And the Torres thing is a myth. He's got the better of Vidic once and that too was a loss of concentration and not a lack of ability. Henry vs Vidic would have been a fantastic battle. A great defender vs a great striker.

I'm always right

Yep and on the second goal he plugs the gap at left back and NO-ONE picks up Messi.... same result!!!!

Mihajlovic

Watch the second goal and look at what first Carrick is doing, then Park, then Evra, and then Vidic.

Park makes two steps and then basically stops running giving Messi all the time since the beginning of the universe to march forward. By the time Evra realizes fuck the little old woman is piercing through, he makes a move but it's already too late. Vidic was probably half perplexed thinking how the fuck could that hobbit be allowed to even shoot.

Eugenius

You mean the Kaka who he played against once when he was coming back from a broken collarbone. He's only played vs Eto'o once either.

Brwned

Do you think the reason he might not have went in to close down Messi is because, well, it's Messi? Rushing out of defence, leaving a huge gap exposed through the middle - and not being confident your left back can plug that gap with the form he's in - to a player who can and has dribbled through your team at will or slide a ball inside to Pedro or Villa who exploit the space so well isn't necessarily the best idea. Well, in my opinion at least.

Lance Uppercut

My kind of debating.