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Carrick: 'I left Rome but I don't think Rome has ever really left me'
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Interesting - I thought we were the best team in the world going into that final, but could have no complaints with the result.
The highlight of going to that final was without a doubt the pizza I had in Rome at lunchtime, it was all downhill from there. God that was a grim performance, we started alright I seem to remember, then just got totally outplayed. I was pretty confident going in too, but we looked miles off them.
Quite odd it affected him so much considering he won it the year before. It wasn't like he blew his one big chance.
Winning mentality. Probably thought they could be the first team to retain it.
Thanks, a good read and something I guess a lot of us don’t know or think about when we watch the games.
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Thanks for sharing. Very interesting read. And a bit sad too.
I think Barca were strong favourites though, right? I mean they completely obliterated us in the final. Fergie did arguably get his tactics wrong with isolating Ronaldo up front, but I doubt it would've made much difference regardless. They were another level.
You have to wonder if the relentless psychological management by someone like Sir Alex could have added to that feeling.
I remember that game too well, unfortunatelly. Our midfield just got overrun and if it wasn't for our players battling all over the pitch, that final could had been an historical result for Barça.
It's an enlightening read. Depression isn't something that is talked about in football nearly enough. We expect footballers to be robots, despite them playing what is an emotionally draining game.
It's a huge weight to carry on your shoulders, the feeling of responsibility of one goal in a huge game. It's a shame for him he felt solely responsible. If they hadn't have scored then, they'd have scored eventually. They were just that much better.
It's a huge weight to carry on your shoulders, the feeling of responsibility of one goal in a huge game. It's a shame for him he felt solely responsible. If they hadn't have scored then, they'd have scored eventually. They were just that much better.
Probably the shock effect stunning also alot of us watching. I thought it was the best United team in history, and had the feeling of being chanceless at the end. I’ve watched the game twice later, though, and we weren’t chanceless, In fact, we were slightly better than them in much of the game, and where never outplayed. We had two shoddy defence errors you usually get away with, and were cruelly punished by some magical players. The game changed with the goals, obviously. Still I believe we actually played better (against a better team) than when we beat them the year before. 2011 was a whole other story.
I can't say I'm surprised by this because it makes sense given his career path.
He'd been one of my favourite players over his first three seasons at the club but it was like someone had flicked a switch at the start of the 09/10 season. His form was dreadful for a good 18 months. Then I thought he had a very good end to the 10/11 season and was superb in Ferguson's last two.
You can never underestimate the role psychology plays at the top of the game.
He'd been one of my favourite players over his first three seasons at the club but it was like someone had flicked a switch at the start of the 09/10 season. His form was dreadful for a good 18 months. Then I thought he had a very good end to the 10/11 season and was superb in Ferguson's last two.
You can never underestimate the role psychology plays at the top of the game.
Looking at betting odds from the match, we were slight favourites for the bookies. I remember feeling invincible after the season we just had, the final really came as a surprise.
http://www.betexplorer.com/soccer/e...08-2009/barcelona-manchester-united/GSUpSzP6/
I have no regrets regarding this final. Once Ineista scored his goal against Chelsea I knew they were going to win it.
Our golden generation was fecked up by the fact it overlapped with one of the best football teams in history. Otherwise we would have at least had one more CL.
Our golden generation was fecked up by the fact it overlapped with one of the best football teams in history. Otherwise we would have at least had one more CL.
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That game hurt on the night but we got so outclassed I didn't come away thinking we deserved better than the result. There were no last minute goals, this was a comprehensive beating. Maybe getting outclassed the way we did is what hurt his professional pride.
Didn't read the article, but I remember him in another interview where he mentions it.
He said it's better to go out of the competition before then lose the final.
Exactly plus the whole Barca performance was completely unexpected and nobody realized how good they were going into the final. If Carrick had the benefit of hindsight than he wouldn't have been so depressed because we lost to one of the best teams ever but at that point in time we thought we were favorites going into the game so getting beaten like that when you are considered to be favourites is what probably made him feel so low.
What else could Fergie do? I think his idea was great: we pressed high up the pitch and we actually stalled them at the beggining. The problem was: our midfield lacked agressivity and O'Shea was a liablility when we had the ball.
Also, Guardiola used Messi as a false nine in that match, something which was a rare moment in that season (he usually played on the right wing at 2008/09) and our defence just couldn't cope a lack of a marking reference.
I don't think anyone would blame Carrick for us losing that game. For those few years Pep's Barcelona were possibly the best club team of all time. We could have had a hattrick of CL titles in that time period if not for them. They would have scored eventually even if Carrick hadn't lost possession to concede at that particular time.
Winners mentality though that he still thinks we could have won it.
Winners mentality though that he still thinks we could have won it.
Barcelona should never have been in the final. Chelsea were robbed by the referee. We would've probably won back to back champions league otherwise.
They had Alves and Abidal out with suspension and Marquez out with injury, so they were forced to line-up with Sylvinho and freaking Yaya Toure in their defense. I was 100% sure we'd outscore them. I knew we probably wouldn't get a cleansheet but seeing that defense I was confident we'd bang in more goals than them.
He got his fair share of abuse from this place after that performance I remember that much.
I know it's not an excuse, but Chelsea players started pressing the ref from the beggining of the match. From the moment "real" fouls started to happen, Overbo was already fed up with Chelsea players and started ignoring the obvious
Barca stole that CL. It should have been an all English final.
One can see from what Carrick says that footballers might underperform because of psychological issues and even because they care too much, and not because they do not care.
Im14andthisisdeep.
What the feck is this?
They should have been. But the betting companies and the British press were slow to catch up on how good their form had been through 2008/09. In fairness Chelsea matching Barcelona gave the impression that Barcelona's possession football was still to prove that it could overcome the resilient English defences that dominated European football in the previous few years.
Ovrebo you twat
It was our bad luck that we had to face Barcelona (without a doubt the best club team of the century) twice in finals
We really missed Daren Fletcher in Rome (Suspended by poor referring)..he may not be everyone's cup of coffee but he was the one we needed for those kind of big games.
I am not surprised with Carrick as it happens when you truly believe you can beat anyone in the world but in the end if you have to settle for second (I am sure even Djemba-Djemba might have felt the world's best under Fergie's management even though he was rubbish..SAF installed that kind of mentality/environment at UTD in most of his years)
Only complaint is, Fergie relied a lot on aging Giggs/Scholesy for a longer period then he should be...If he signed few good young midfield players in his last years at UTD, We could have done much better and I am sure those players might still be playing for UTD now.
We really missed Daren Fletcher in Rome (Suspended by poor referring)..he may not be everyone's cup of coffee but he was the one we needed for those kind of big games.
I am not surprised with Carrick as it happens when you truly believe you can beat anyone in the world but in the end if you have to settle for second (I am sure even Djemba-Djemba might have felt the world's best under Fergie's management even though he was rubbish..SAF installed that kind of mentality/environment at UTD in most of his years)
Only complaint is, Fergie relied a lot on aging Giggs/Scholesy for a longer period then he should be...If he signed few good young midfield players in his last years at UTD, We could have done much better and I am sure those players might still be playing for UTD now.
They ran rings round us. I watched it with a bunch of ABUs. They did not spare me.
Second one didn't hurt even though the gap was bigger. I knew we had no chance.
Second one didn't hurt even though the gap was bigger. I knew we had no chance.
We were pressing Barcelona high up the pitch. We were a good team defensively at the time but it felt like the wrong tactics to me pressing so high up. The very first time they predictably played through the pressing they scored.
Always feel like he could and should have done much more in big games. Perhaps he feels the same.
uhhhhh this isn't reddit bro
Not surprised by this. For a midfielder to go in a toe to toe battle with the best midfield of all time, it exposed all the unhitherto detected flaws in his game. He must have gone into it thinking he's on the verge of being World Class and then to be brutally dissected like that - tough for anyone to take... especially if you feel that deep down, you're not going to be as good as your opponent no matter how hard you work.
Maybe nobody realised it in England because of the somewhat insular nature of English football. But that Barcelona team destroyed Real Madrid 6-2 at the Bernabeu a few weeks before that. They beat Bayern 4-0 in the quarter-finals. They were really, really good.
They were underestimated because Chelsea got really close to knocking them out by parking the bus twice. They also had both Abidal and Dani Alves suspended, with Yaya Touré at CB so the conventional wisdom was that their defence could be got at.
Had we scored first, it might have been a different game but after that Eto'o goal there was going to be only one winner.
To be fair, Abidal's red card was a ridiculous decision, too - at that point it was 20 minutes to go and Chelsea just had to hold on to a one goal lead against ten men. They fecked that up massively, no matter how much they want to blame Ovrebo. And Barcelona should have had their own penalty in the first leg.
Maybe English press and pundits didn't expect Barca to be that good, but as someone who had watched Barca all season I was not hopeful for us heading in. Messi had finally reached superstar mode, and the entire team was firing on all cylinders.
Were people truly this positive going into that final? I know for a fact I wasn't....Chelsea stinging them aside and we have never been as tactically disciplined against bigger teams as Chelsea have consistently been to do that, Barcelona had the greatest season in my lifetime and the surprise factor of it ran out about November....they only truly game other than the Chelsea one where they were kind of undone was against one of Aguero's finest (still) ever performances. I know the season has been outdone statistically and all that, but to have our 07/08 and their 08/09 seasons back to back was fun, at a time I could watch a lot too.
I also wasn't positive in 2008 either mind you, but as stated above, that's down to Chelsea being Chelsea....but at least I can sit here and say I'd be tremendously sad if that one didn't come home bare in mind we pulled past them to nail the title and all that. The Barcelona loss was gutting no doubt, but I kind of got over both...pretty quickly. Theres still losses in knockout phases I still haven't got over, well I have, but I dwell on them more.
08/09 felt like such an efficient as opposed to special season for me, and that's why in the end, they looked pretty routine when it came to the biggest stage. Barcelona were having a truly special year.
I also wasn't positive in 2008 either mind you, but as stated above, that's down to Chelsea being Chelsea....but at least I can sit here and say I'd be tremendously sad if that one didn't come home bare in mind we pulled past them to nail the title and all that. The Barcelona loss was gutting no doubt, but I kind of got over both...pretty quickly. Theres still losses in knockout phases I still haven't got over, well I have, but I dwell on them more.
08/09 felt like such an efficient as opposed to special season for me, and that's why in the end, they looked pretty routine when it came to the biggest stage. Barcelona were having a truly special year.