Poll: Champions League Final - Barcelona vs Manchester United - 27th May 2009 *SPOILERS*

[nikebee]

I do love all the blowing off messi gets from people who only watch him 5 times a year.

Entirely agree.

We see Ronaldo week in and week out.
The majority of us will see Messi in the CL only, or the occasional Barca game.

How some people can favour one over the other without seeing one of them play regularly is beyond me.

Then people go and try and dig up stats to say ones better... meh.

 

[DanH84]

Personally I think Manu have been average this year and not even gotten into their normal top gear.

Even playing at a low standard for them they have managed to win the league and get to the final. They just need a mini clearout break from the old and dont waste the 30 million on tevez.

Tevez seems to not want to pass to Berbatov on occasion this season, save the money from him, add in what we'd have anyway and we can sort ourselves out.

 

[Reed]

Well that was disappointing to say the least. In all honesty im not sure whether Barca were incredibly good or because we played well below average we made them look good. Regardless they were the best team for 90 minutes and we certainly didn't look like we had turned up.

Can't even say good game but well done to Barcalona

 

[Anksy]

we made barcelona look good, i just wish we turned up tonight not just for ourselves but to show that the premier league is the best league

 

[Yas786]

I would hardly agree with that if your basing it on one performance.

It was billed as Ronaldo vs Messi... and neither had a great game tonight. Messi had some good runs and got onto the end of a header because Ferdinand and Vidic were 10+ feet away from him.

If you want to base the best player in the world on a performance tonight? Give it to Iniesta... I don't think anyone would argue with you then. He was in a class of his own tonight.

Oh dear Messi isnt being called the best player in the world because of tonights performance...all season in the La Liga and CL hes been nothing short of amazing....i mean hes the top scorer in the CL....that says a lot about him.
I'll say this after watching 95% of Barcas games this season...if it wasnt for Messi they wouldnt be as good as they are right now...sure Iniesta is awesome too but with Messi the whole team just comes together...he makes those important runs at crucial times...did it enough times to Man Utd to cause them enough grief..surprised that Man Utd gave him so mush space...surely they should have closed him down and possibly stifled Barcas attack but they didnt and that cost them the game.

So for me...bias aside Messi has been the best player so far from what i have seen of him...he rarely has bad games and unlike a certain world football player...he doesnt throw many sissy fits.

 

[Jono8]

United were total rubbish today.

 

[Yas786]

we made barcelona look good, i just wish we turned up tonight not just for ourselves but to show that the premier league is the best league

No u didnt...Barca just made u look decidely average simple as that...You were thoroughly outplayed...no excuses as on paper you were a stronger team...definitely defense wise and bench wise..

 

[nikebee]

And if that fails, just go down like a sack of spuds.

LOL

United's best player?

Van Der Sar I'd say, he didn't have a lot to do made some saves but let in two goals.

Rooney was okay, he made some decent moves but never really got into the game.

Evra had a decent game when called upon to be fair to him. He handled Eto'o okay for the most part... but I can't help but think he was asked to man mark Messi... but Messi didn't play there.

O'Shea was poor, Ferdinand and Vidic weren't brilliant, Carrick was poor, Anderson was TERRIBLE, Giggs was okay but didn't get going...

Standout performer for me was Anderson, and that's because he was absolute *****

 

[JohnnyG]

Entirely agree.

We see Ronaldo week in and week out.
The majority of us will see Messi in the CL only, or the occasional Barca game.

How some people can favour one over the other without seeing one of them play regularly is beyond me.

Then people go and try and dig up stats to say ones better... meh.

I agree with this, it's like when people pick a 'World XI' and include foreign players they've seen play on highlights shows on Sky.
Ronaldo is the best player I've seen in years, he may not be the best in the world but I'm not qualified to answer that, very few are though really

 

[Jono8]

tbh i thought carrick was our weakest player. No composure and gave the ball away all to often. Park looked clueless aswell.

 

[nikebee]

Oh dear Messi isnt being called the best player in the world because of tonights performance...all season in the La Liga and CL hes been nothing short of amazing....i mean hes the top scorer in the CL....that says a lot about him.

As I said earlier, Nabz clearly was basing it on tonight performance. Almost as if it was Messi vs. Ronaldo and that was that.

I'll say it again, I've not seen Messi play enough to say whether he's better or not.

Ronaldo this season for us has been pretty good for us this season but nowhere near last season. In all honesty we've not had that many fantastic performers this year other than Vidic, Evans and Rio when called upon.

 

[Visionary]

Messi is probably on Sky more than Ronaldo, loads on here have seen both loads and made up their minds.

See the Continental football thread.

 

[nikebee]

tbh i thought carrick was our weakest player. No composure and gave the ball away all to often. Park looked clueless aswell.

Worse than Anderson?

Anderson had a terrible game. He maybe connected two passes, he over ran balls, he miss kicked balls... he had an absolute stinker.

The only player that looked a little nervy for us at the start there was Anderson... He looked a little tetchy...

Looks like he wasn't the only one in the end

 

[nikebee]

Messi is probably on Sky more than Ronaldo, loads on here have seen both loads and made up their minds.

See the Continental football thread.

If most of you guys have seen Messi play just as much as you have Ronaldo, and the majority of you think he's better then you're probably right and that's fair enough. I just don't agree with those people jumping on the bandwagon or like I said just trying to proclaim one is better than the other. That's all.

 

[Tute]

Well that's what you get when you play like that - forget Barcelona, Barnsley would have had a field day with our defence today.

Also we looked blunt in attack, Ronaldo was far too selfish on the ball, and the midfield went missing.

Having said that, the simulation from the catalans was nothing short of rampant, and the referee just encouraged it with his performance. How Pique didn't walk for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity with obstruction is beyond me, especially when Vidic went for the same offence earlier in the season.

Still, no complaints really. I'd rather it was a foreign side than one of our English rivals, so there's at least a little consolation.

 

[DanH84]

Anyway, tonight we'll have a moan and dissect but still fair play to all at the club for another great season. We've been shown where it's possible to improve and hopefully the players take a hunger out of tonight to perform next year.

 

[nikebee]

I don't think Pique was the last man.

It was only Messi and Puyol who were the main conteders for diving around and acting like big Jessies tonight. They did tend to make more of all of our challenges than they were... but that happens every game these days.

 

[Andybtsn]

I still don't see what Anderson brings to the Man U side, yes I only see him in about 15 games a season but I never see him have a good game tbh.

 

[Visionary]

I still don't see what Anderson brings to the Man U side, yes I only see him in about 15 games a season but I never see him have a good game tbh.

Me neither. He's good at winning the ball back because he's quick and pretty strong but he never seems to do anything with it.

 

[nikebee]

Anyway, tonight we'll have a moan and dissect but still fair play to all at the club for another great season. We've been shown where it's possible to improve and hopefully the players take a hunger out of tonight to perform next year.

The worse thing is that it was 10 years ago we did the Treble.

We went down with an early goal again today, got dominated again today...

We had the players and the team to win the Champions League (again) and I honestly thought we had a real chance of doing it back to back.

That's what's hurting about the loss.

We're already talking about shipping out players and bringing new ones in (well they were on ITV at least...) when 80-90% of our side is spot on. We just need to get the players... playing!

We do need a new right back, and could have done with cover in the midfield today as we cannot depend upon Scholes any more.

Bring in Srna and Miguel Veloso I say