United must grind merry-go-round to a halt

Wednesday, 25th May 2011 at 04:25am

The last time that Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team went head-to-head was in the 2009 Champions League final and the former described the mesmerising way Barcelona played as akin to taking a ride on a merry-go-round.

Barcelona's famed 'tiki-taka' style of play - where the emphasis is on short passing, movement, working the ball through various channels and maintaining possession - has been one of the keys to their success and was the reason why United spent much of the 90 minutes in Rome chasing shadows.

Since that chastening defeat, Ferguson has always maintained that he knows what he got wrong and has been itching to face Barcelona ever since.

In the early hours of Sunday morning (Thai time) he will get the chance as his record breaking Manchester United side will once again lock horns with Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta - Barca's Holy Trinity - et al.

Messi is the undoubted star of the team; this year alone he has scored 52 goals, created 24 and is on his way to being regarded as one of the all-time greats.

But while Messi is the jewel in the crown, Barcelona's smooth passing game is made possible by the presence of the latter two.

Both Xavi and Iniesta are technically superb and their game is built upon simplicity - pass, move, receive, and pass again - and it is something they are incredibly proficient at, raring misplacing a pass.

Barcelona often enjoy as much as 70 per cent possession in matches, making it hard for opponents to create chances and with such skilled players on the ball it is little wonder they are so successful.

This is no team of prima donnas either. When out of possession Barca work hard to regain the ball, constantly harrying their opponents into a mistake.

This is no mean feat and having done so for more than 50 matches this season, it takes its toll but when you have as much possession as the Catalan's do, it provides breathing space.

So how do United win? They must disrupt Barca's style of play and Ferguson will need his side to pressure the Barcelona playmakers into making errors and catch them on the counter attack as Arsenal did to great success earlier this year.

The likes of Park Ji-Sung, Anderson and Darren Fletcher - if fit - will be key to this if Utd are to stop Pep Guardiola's men from lifting a third European Cup in just six seasons.

They must also work out a way to nullify the Messi threat; something made difficult given the fluid nature of Barcelona's attacking three of the Argentine, David Villa and, probably, Pedro Rodriguez.

All three switch positions to devastating effect which means the United defence is likely to have a torrid time deciding who to mark and might leave the Argentine free to wreak havoc.

Wayne Rooney can also make a difference - with and without the ball. This season he has returned to the levels of performance of the first two-thirds of 2009-10 and has struck up an excellent partnership with Javier Hernandez, the Mexican striker.

Without the ball, Rooney must pressurise Sergio Busquets, the Barca holding midfielder to try and knock the Catalans out of their rhythm.

Ferguson says he knows how to beat this team and, given his phenomenal record as United boss, it would be foolhardy to write the Red Devils off but Barcelona still start the game as heavy favourites.

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