I don't understand? Why would Milan have 1 more, if we beat them in 2007?
Carrick: 'I left Rome but I don't think Rome has ever really left me'
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I think Deportivo would have been a struggle for us in the semi's that year. We have a tricky record vs. Spanish sides and Deportivo generally gave us problems back then. Not saying we wouldn't have won (our only KO games with Depor we did win) but it would have been 50/50.
We were the favs going in with the bookies.
I fecking love Carrick. One of my favourite ever players.
They would have beaten a tired, out of form barcelona in 2006(whom they already went close to beating anyways. 3 posts in the first leg and a perfectly good goal disallowed in the second leg)
Yeah me too. Actually I remember screaming my head off for the Rooney goal, but still not really believing we ever had a chance, if that makes sense.
2010 vs Bayern as well. That one still hurts to this day. We would've almost certainly beaten Lyon and Inter Milan.
You had to bully that Barcelona side.
Fergie in big games just never seemed to quite *get* it.
Fergie in big games just never seemed to quite *get* it.
This is pub talk. Everyone said this but it was easier said than done. Nothing short of illegal rugby tackles could stop their passing game. It also doesn't help that referees in Europe don't have a very high tolerance for physicality. Having a single midfielder on a yellow against Messi and the rest was a nightmare scenario
Sad to hear Carrick speaking like that, good job he didn't read what people on here were posting about him in reference to that final and around that period
Was it the final loss or the signing that summer ?
Seriously now I realize why he was awful in 09/10.
Seriously now I realize why he was awful in 09/10.
The only team in Europe who knew how to play Barca was Chelsea, and they were one of the most physical sides around.
Think that was the most devastating loss in recent memory as a United fan. I thought we’d win the final.
2011 was different but I really think we could of won 2009 on another day.
2011 was different but I really think we could of won 2009 on another day.
What did Chelsea do throughout that period then? Outplay them?
2011 didn't hurt at all(well not much) We all knew how it would go and that was probably the peak of Pep's Barca. 2008 was different, Barca had yet to confirm themselves as what they became and if Utd had won that final it would have cemented that era 06-10 as one of the best club periods ever. That was the opportunity for Utd to put themselves alongside teams like the great Milan side of the early 90's to be seen as a truly legendary group worldwide. For us they still are but given the records Utd set in Europe over those 2 years it was a humbling experience for them.
For Carrick personally I am not surprised, the defeats are always more bitter than the wins are sweet.
For Carrick personally I am not surprised, the defeats are always more bitter than the wins are sweet.
And were a great team.
Yeah, I agree. There were a number of bad decisions affecting both teams and there was basically nothing separating them by the end of the two legs. Could have gone either way.
Credit to Chelsea though - they were custom designed to play against Barcelona with a top-class defence comfortable operating deep, a hard-working and defensively disciplined midfield, and a dominating target man as an out-ball to bully ball-playing centre-backs.
To be fair though, given the narrow manner of the final wins in 1999 and 2008 which both could easily have gone the other way, Ferguson's total could be 'even less'.
I guess I'm alone in that i was more heart broken with the 2011 final, mainly because we equalized 1-1 by half time and had a chance.
The 2009 final we were only good for the opening 10-15 minutes, and once etoo scored it was very one sided
The 2009 final we were only good for the opening 10-15 minutes, and once etoo scored it was very one sided
Definitely. They were well organized, frustrated them and carried a threat in attack as well. Did a much much better job than we did.
2011 final wasn't much different though. We were utterly and completely outclassed in the second half of 2011 final. That was embarrassing to watch tbf.
Absolutely, made us look like a sunday league side in a CL final, the diving midgets.
Our only chance to somehow win that game was to play 5-3-2 imo.
SAF had a lot of courage to try and play proactive football against them, they were something else, what was he thinking?
SAF biggest mistake in that 2011 was going on with Giggs as a midfielder. Imagine playing a near 40 player in midfield against their very dynamic midfield.
But overall I think we were going to lose both finals anyway. Barca were far too much for us. Just hopped it would have come in a more classy way than being dominated like that though.
Always thought the 2011 team wasn't that good and had it lucky to the final. Our 2010 team was far better and I think we could have a decent chance, far more than Bayern, against Inter in the final.
Yes, but he’s had no other options. Fletcher was done, Giggs was more athletic than Scholes and was having a better season, Anderson ?(lol).
I remember people suggesting we play with Carrick-Giggs-Evans/O’shea midfield.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.
That's why I think overall we would have lost anyway. Barca were just too much for us.
You must have put everything you owned on Barcelona to win with the bookmakers, because you knew it was going to happen.
Anyone who watched La Liga this season knew that Barca were extremely phenomenal and that would be mostly their year. They just went under radar in England I believe. Iniesta goal proved they had the luck on their side too.
I still remember cheering when Iniesta scored at the bridge.
There whole back four was out or something, I thought they were easier to beat than Chelsea...
There whole back four was out or something, I thought they were easier to beat than Chelsea...
To this day I still say a 2-1 would have been a fairer result.
And to this day I still think Chelsea would have won the 2009 final against Barcelona.
And to this day I still think Chelsea would have won the 2009 final against Barcelona.
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Up until the Eto'o goal I remember us out-Barcelona-ing Barcelona. They didn't touch the ball until they scored pretty much (my memory might be wrong, I don't particularly want to watch it again). For that first 10 minutes I thought we had transcended football, we were going to smash them and they were all hype
. After they scored, we basically didn't touch the ball though In 2011 I was under no illusion that we were going to get anything but routed. 3-1 was actual a decent showing. At least we scored. I guess you didn't get scarred by 2009.
Do we know what happened to that referee? I really never saw him after that steal of a job lol.
Yes, they were. I remember. But in a one-off game scenario in football anything can happen and quite usually, anything does happen. See: Barcelona 0 Hercules 2. You can't say you 'knew it would happen', nobody knows what's going to happen in football, especially in a knockout Champions league match. More of than not the best team doesn't win the European Cup. The best team, though, did win that year.
Park should have scored at 0-0. We also should have put Rooney up top and Ronaldo on the wing. If I recall correctly they had Puyol at right back and Pique and Toure at centre back. Rooney would have done better against the latter two, and I think Ronaldo would rinse Puyol.
Also, when we went 1-0 down, I believe we pushed Giggs further forward, leaving Rooney out on the wing. A mistake.
Would loved to have played that game with Hargreaves, Fletcher and Carrick in midfield, Ronaldo on the wing and Rooney up top. Also would have started Tevez-he didn't have a great season but he's better on the ball than Park and I don't think the effort would have been much less.
We might still have lost, but I'll always wonder!
Fun fact about that game: we all felt dominated, but the statistics are surprisingly, perhaps misleadingly, balanced. We had 49% possession, more shots and more corners. 2011, that was a real dicking, even if the Rooney goal was a great moment. Fergie saying he "knew what went wrong" in 2009 gave us all far too much hope
Also, when we went 1-0 down, I believe we pushed Giggs further forward, leaving Rooney out on the wing. A mistake.
Would loved to have played that game with Hargreaves, Fletcher and Carrick in midfield, Ronaldo on the wing and Rooney up top. Also would have started Tevez-he didn't have a great season but he's better on the ball than Park and I don't think the effort would have been much less.
We might still have lost, but I'll always wonder!
Fun fact about that game: we all felt dominated, but the statistics are surprisingly, perhaps misleadingly, balanced. We had 49% possession, more shots and more corners. 2011, that was a real dicking, even if the Rooney goal was a great moment. Fergie saying he "knew what went wrong" in 2009 gave us all far too much hope
I'm surprised Busquets' career didn't end that night after Scholes' brutal tackle near the end of the match.
Personally I thought we were going to beat them in 2009, was feeling confident going into that match.
Our defence was brilliant the whole season, and I didn’t think theirs could deal with the power and the pace of Ronaldo and Rooney.
They’ve also had Toure at CB, so there was also that.
We absolutely dismantled Arsenal a couple of weeks before that, and they were the closest team to Barca at the time, style-wise.
So yeah I wasn’t expecting that outcome at all, even though I knew they were having a great season.
Our defence was brilliant the whole season, and I didn’t think theirs could deal with the power and the pace of Ronaldo and Rooney.
They’ve also had Toure at CB, so there was also that.
We absolutely dismantled Arsenal a couple of weeks before that, and they were the closest team to Barca at the time, style-wise.
So yeah I wasn’t expecting that outcome at all, even though I knew they were having a great season.
The most difficult lost I've had as a United fan. All I remember about the result was getting absolutely pissed after Barca's second and tripping up and falling a sleep in the goal in the garden. So yeah not great memories.
Michael Carrick interview: Barcelona defeat sent me into a two-year depression
Michael Carrick sits down on the sofa, unfolds his arms and finally lets out a secret that he has kept locked up inside him for almost a decade.
When Sir Alex Ferguson, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville wake up this morning, they will discover for the first time that their friend and former colleague suffered from depression for the best part of two years.
The former United midfielder, one of the most decorated players in the club’s long and proud history, today opens up about his battle with depression, in this interview and in his autobiography Between the Lines, which is serialised in The Times this week.
The bouts of depression began nine years ago, when the final whistle sounded in Manchester United’s Champions League final defeat by Barcelona, but only now has Carrick felt able to reveal the full extent of the torment that he felt following that night in Rome.
“It was the biggest low of my career by quite some way and I don’t really know why,” Carrick says, shrugging his shoulders as he speaks. “I thought I’d let myself down in the biggest game of my career. I had won the Champions League the year before, but that was totally irrelevant.
“It felt like I was depressed. I was really down. I imagine that is what depression is.
“I describe it as depression because it wasn’t a one-off thing. I felt bad or terrible after some games, but then you get over it in the next couple of days, but that one I just couldn’t shrug off. It was a strange feeling.”
After that night in the Stadio Olimpico, Carrick went on holiday to Majorca with his wife Lisa and their first child Louise, then only 15 months old, but he barely spoke to them.
Night after night, he would replay the passage of play that led to Barcelona’s first goal, scored by Samuel Eto’o, in which his loose header was pounced on by Andrés.
“I beat myself up over that goal,” Carrick says. “I kept asking myself: ‘why did I do that?’ and then it [the depression] snowballed from there. It was a tough year after that. It lingered for a long time.” Carrick is not asking for sympathy. He knows that there are people out there who are worse off than him. That is why he is donating the profits from his book to the Michael Carrick Foundation, the charity he set up which helps young people in deprived areas get access to training facilities.
The 37-year-old is merely asking for understanding about the psychological demands that are placed on top-level footballers.
“As a footballer you are expected to be that machine that just churns out results after results, performance after performance,” Carrick says. “You are paid well and you play for a big club so why can’t he be good every week? It’s just not like that. It’s not easy to do that and it’s easy to forget that. There could be all sorts going on that you don’t know about.”
So bad was the self doubt that one of the finest passers of his generation, “the conductor of the orchestra” as Ferguson’s former assistant Mike Phelan used to call him, threatened to come home during the World Cup in South Africa eight years ago.
“In 2010, that was the worst time. It was my dream to be at a World Cup but the truth is that I didn’t want to be there,” Carrick says. “I wanted to be at home. I was telling Lisa: ‘I’ve had enough. I want to come home.’
“I wouldn’t have done but that’s how I felt.”
Carrick only began to feel that he had rediscovered his mojo in United’s Champions League quarter-final win over Chelsea in April 2011. For the previous two years, only Carrick’s parents, his brother Graeme and his wife Lisa knew about his struggles.
“I kept it to myself most of the time. Even my family didn’t know the full extent of it,” he says.
“It’s not something that’s really spoken about in football. I have not spoken about it before. For the lads that I have played with that are reading this, this will be the first time that they know [about the depression]. They wouldn’t know. They might say he wasn’t playing well, or he wasn’t himself, but they wouldn’t know the extent to which the problem was. I just tried to keep it to myself and get through it.”
There is something refreshing about hearing one of the game’s most respected figures talk so openly about a topic that is still considered by some to be off limits in the macho world of football.
Honesty is one of the many character traits that has served Carrick well throughout his career. He is an engaging figure, a man who speaks with sincerity and authority during our 30-minute chat at the Malmaison hotel in Manchester.
Our interview takes place a couple of days after United’s Carabao Cup defeat on penalties to Derby County. The back-page headline on the copy of the Manchester Evening News that sits in the hotel lobby reads: “DISUNITED – it’s Pog against José as rift at Reds deepens”.
Wherever Carrick turns, tales of discord within the camp are prevalent, but José Mourinho’s No 2 will not add fuel to the fire by declaring that he would one day like to take Mourinho’s place in the home dugout at Old Trafford.
“I don’t want to throw that out there and say I’d want to be United manager,” he says. “It would be amazing to be a manager, but I am not in a position to call that. It’s not fair or respectful to be going down that route at this stage.”
Mourinho was the man who handed Carrick a new contract when Louis van Gaal left United; he was the man who gave Carrick all the time and help he could to recover from his heart problem; and he was the man who promoted Carrick to the backroom staff at Old Trafford last summer, so it is easy to see why he only has nice things to say about his boss.
“It’s gold dust having José there to draw on what he’s doing and learn from him,” Carrick says.
Carrick has not been given a ceremonial role. Along with Kieran McKenna he sits alongside Mourinho on the bench. Between them, they have been tasked with filling the considerable void left by Rui Faria, Mourinho’s long-time trusted assistant who left United in the summer.
Carrick’s role is as paternal as it is technical. When Anthony Martial was walking off the pitch in Berne after finishing his warm-up before United’s Champions League match against Young Boys last month, Carrick thrust his arm around the Frenchman and pulled him in close for a motivational pep talk.
“I’m really enjoying it. It’s a role that I never thought at this stage of my coaching career that I would get,” Carrick says. “I’m not there as an intern to try and just learn. I’m there to do a job as well and at the same time try to improve myself.
“It’s kind of about learning what works for certain lads. Do they need an arm around the shoulder or a bit of a dig in the ribs to liven them up? Those are the skills of coaching and managing.”
If anyone is equipped to one day take the reigns at United then it is Carrick. He may have sat in the Gallowgate at St James’ Park as a kid, and admired Liverpool — he even had the ’88 home shirt — but now he is United through and through.
Carrick has the respect of his peers having won 18 trophies during his time at Old Trafford, including five Premier League titles, and, what is more, he is admired by the players and fans.
The honest reality for Carrick is that he does not know if he has what it takes to become a manager. “I’m not blasé enough to think that I’m going to be a manager. The truth is: I don’t know,” Carrick says.
“I’m at that stage now where I’m thinking: ‘Will he make it or will he not?’ Everyone can’t make it. I’ll just have to give it my best shot and see where it takes us.
“I’m not chasing it. I’m in a fantastic position right now. I’m not looking to get out of that position any time soon because I want to do something else.”
Being a student of the game, Carrick also has an eye on the next generation and he concedes that young footballers earn way too much money.
“I think there is a worry that young players get too much too soon now,” he says. “In our day it was once you got to the first team, you got more money, whereas now you get money for having potential, which probably is the biggest difference.
“But then if one club doesn’t pay it, someone else will. That is the nature of the world that we are in. If you want those players at your club then that is what you have got to do.”