AUTHOR: – Doron
The quarter final draw for the Champions League has been made and United won’t have to travel very far!
United have been drawn to face Chelsea in the quarter finals of the Champions League. The first leg is away from home in London. The two sides have met once before in the competition on neutral ground in Moscow where United famously won the tournament on penalties in 2008.
Should United progress through to the semi finals they will play Inter or Schalke again with the first leg away from home. United have never lost to Inter, winning twice at home and drawing twice away. The two sides most recently met in 2008/09 when United beat the Italians 2-0 on aggregate. Schalke would represent new opposition for United.
You can discuss the draw on our forum or our facebook page.
AUTHOR: – Doron
I’ve gone for “On the fence.” It’s very much a could-be-better-could-be-worse sort of a draw for us, with a comparitively favourable set of options for the semis as well.
Real/Spurs and Barca/Shakhtar looks to be the much more entertaining side of the draw though.
It’s a tough draw I wanted Barca or Madrid but Chelsea may be tougher than Barca.
This is when the CL become interesting. I can see Spurs beating Madrid or Madrid beating Barca in the semi.
I hope Fergie attacks and plays with Rooney behind Chicharito. I think he may start with Park and I’d prefer Valencia to Nani, and Fletcher and Anderson in midfield.
Berbatov will never be a United player. Hopefully Vidic will be back.
Fergie may revert to Rooney up front and fill the midfield.
I’d prefer to attack and lose than play negative and win. I enjoyed the way we played against Chelsea recently, I hope we go at them.
United must always attack!
@mancunian red – is ‘bash berbatov’ bandwagon back again?
I’ve been on a few fans sites and since Tuesday it’s been open season on our top scorer.
Its a place for opinions I thought, I don’t rate Berbatov as a United player, perhaps you you cannot accept people having different opinions you shouldn’t read them or get upset.
And regarding the bash Berbatov wagon I have no idea what you are talking about, I like him as a person but having watched him live probably over 60 times I think people are allowed to have an opinion.
Especially when he goes missing in big games, is inconsistent, even Fergie doesn’t play him in most big games and has eventually realised a mistake paying over 30 million. And Berbatov doesn’t get the best out of those around him. United play best with pace and link up play and movement, Berbatov plays best when he is in the mood and teams aren’t playing that well.
It isn’t a bandwagon it is based on lots of match going fans watching him week in and week out!
Hi lads
I think Berbatov is a real tough one. He’s a striker so is naturally judged on goals to an extent. That gives fuel to both sides of the argument – he’s our top scorer yet he often goes spells without scoring and has gluts. In three PL games he’s scored 11 of his 20 goals!
He last scored 25th Jan but would have at Wigan had he not been unselfish.
This blog has written about him before. I personally spoke of how I’d like to see more consistent scoring from him after he scored the 5 goals against Blackburn as I felt 5 goals spread over 5 games would mean more to the team that a sudden burst in one game – http://www.stretford-end.com/blog/2010/11/5-goals-from-berbatov-isnt-enough/
Yet, we had a guest post recently that made a very compelling case as to why Berbatov should be considered a great buy – http://www.stretford-end.com/blog/2011/02/berbaflop-or-berbarotica-the-essential-analysis/
He’ll always split fans because of his style and lack of regular scoring.
Personally, I like him and think at times he’s a joy to watch. However I remain unconvinced that he really suits United or that we really suit him. He does a lot of things he doesn’t get the credit for, like holding up the ball and bringing others into play. Yet, he loves to drop deep and sometimes I feel it would suit us more to play a striker who plays on the shoulder of the last defender like Chicha has done lately.
It’s certainly true that he does things no one else in the side does and when things go right for him people very quickly jump on the ‘genius bandwagon; however when things don’t go well he’s often one of the first players criticised. I don’t think there is a right or wrong and I certainly find myself agreeing with both sides of the debate on various points.
i thought he proved his worth this season especially against liverpool. and i not upset at all mate. different opinions fine to me. also he’s united player at the moment and has most goals so he’s doing ok. about big games, well he proved that wrong this year against l’pool, also to be fair on him he’s not getting much chances either – he’s usually preffered on the bench. for me he’s fine player and i hope he won’t go anywhere. also regarding draw its much better (chelsea) than your preffered barcelona( 🙂 ) or real realistically we have more chance against chelsea + dont need to travel 1000’s of miles.
@nameonthetrophy – thanks for the link about ‘berbaflop or berbarotica’ . also in the way you right about both arguments, but overall i think its better to have such player like him than not to have:)
@ Mancunian Red
Did I just read that right? Sid you actually say you’d prefer to attack and lose than play negative and win. Seriously? I’d prefer to win.period!
Football is about tactics not sending your team a la redknapp and say ATTACK! If spurs/harry had been a bit more “negative” (read defensive) they may have cemented a champs league place by now. But there naive tactics have cost them
Fergus lined up 4-4-2 against pool and tried to attack and we were thoroughly embarrassed. Did that feel good?
@ forzaUtd: He’s not alone though, is he? And in what some would call good company with Johan Cruyff having said pretty much the same thing.
I’m personally far too pragmatic to say I’d rather “lose well” than “win badly”. Well, it’s part pragmatism and partly an appreciation for organisation and a well-executed plan. Winning and playing good football regardless is, for me, a distant third priority behind winning and winning with good football. Playing good football and losing? Hasn’t looked much fun when Arsenal have often done it over the last few years.
It’s the Wenger mindset. A lot of my Arsenal supporting friends aren’t fussed that they don’t win because they’re perceived to be playing the best football in the league. My counter-argument has always been that I love a tactical battle and when we beat them in the league at OT earlier this season it was one of our best performances as we got the tactics spot on and implemented them brilliantly.
It’s just my opinion Berbatov gets stick for th wrong things, attitude & body language being the main. How can he have bad attitude when he turned City’s cash down for us. I have defended him regularily on this site, however before we signed him I regularily argued with my mates that we didn’t need him as we had a perfect link players in Rooney, Ronaldo and even the Argintine whose name does not deserve a mention. With Rooney putting a great shift in as an out and out striker last year I altered my stance and now I think the 3 are a great compliment as Rooney can play 3 roles lone striker link man or front man with Berbatov, Berbatov and Hernandez look quite a good fit too, giving SAF great options to keep opposition guessing on the line up. I will admit there have been times when he has not helped himself this season and last, just as he seems to turn a corner we then see a couple of bad games, sometimes tactically orientated and sometimes just not turning up. Are we not better with him in the squad thank without?
@minde – this blog is all about opinions and having your say, which is what Mancunian Red is doing. If you disagree with the comments about Berbatov, thats fine – but argue that rather than assuming the poster is jumping on the ‘berbatov bandwagon’.
@forzaUtd – you must have seen games where United have sat back and played a more contained style rather than the open attacking football that we have become famous for. United have always played with width – and had some glorious wingers over the years. United took the game to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and attacked them – but still keep the shape and defended well. We can argue all day long whether or not the ‘ref cost us’ but United didn’t lose because of tactical naivety.
With Ian’s point on Cruyff – you know he still feels Holland won the 74 tournament because they played the best football. Holland should have won it, but they toyed with the Germans early first half and paid the price for it.
This blog/forum is all about opinions and the more we get the better from different kinds of fans.
I’m actually quite pleased with the draw – I think we’ve got the beating of Chelsea over two legs. 1-1 at Stamford Bridge and 2-0 at Old Trafford.
I’m just a lover of tactics. I just finding it shocking that a supporter would rather lose by going out all guns blazing than win by counter-acting the opposition with good tactics. When inter beat barca last season it was a victory for tactics and defensive football. I didn’t see many inter fans leaving the nou camp looking unhappy with the manner of their teams progression.
I’m sorry if I came across dismissive or brash. I was just taken aback by the statement.
@forzaUtd thanks for the reply and we welcome any opinion on the blog. There is no problem in stating that United should be more defensive – no whatsoever, but I would concentrate on the point in hand rather than who made the point.
That is what the blog is about – opinion and mature debate. 😉
I quite fancy us to reach the final. Chelsea won’t be easy but playing at home in the second leg is always a massive advantage for me.
Also, Fergie knows what it takes to win an all english champions league tie.