The hype is starting to build up a bit more for the final and I'm getting excited. :D
I'm still trying to guess United's team, Fergie has a lot of choices to make for the final, I'm guessing it will be fairly simple for Guardiola.
RB - Go for one of the attack minded twins or reliable O'Shea?
CM - First of all, use two or three? Then the ultimate choice between Carrick, Anderson, Park, Giggs, Scholes and Fletcher. Each with their own little conundrums such as whether to consider Fletcher so soon after his return from that mysterious illness.
Then the wingers, he'll want to play Nani & Valencia but is it a good option against a team that will have the majority of the possession? Giggs will have to be considered if he doesn't get a Cm role as well.
Its basically attack minded or defence minded and either team would give huge opportunities for Barca.
Now for my personal opinion on how we should play,
First of all, 4-5-1/4-3-3 (depends how you look at it), if we play 4-4-2 then it just says to Barcelona 'Go ahead, controlling the game, tear us apart.'
Who Should Play -
GK - VDS - Obvious really.
RB - O'Shea - I expect we'll be on the back foot for most of the game so it makes sense to use the defence minded full back. Rafael or Fabio would probably have a high risk of getting sent off anyway.
CBs - Vidic and Ferdinand - Again obvious.
LB - Evra - Obv.
RW - Valencia - Whether we go out attacking or not, Valencia will probably play as he does track back, he should provide a good threat on counter attacks and to be fair, he doesn't have much rivalry for his position anyway.
CM (Probably more a DM really) - Carrick - Maybe a bit of a risk as he has had a bad season but he has been pretty good in the cl and he is more reliable than most other options. Good ball-winner as well.
CM - Park - Simple, if we're going to be ball chasing why not pick the guy who works 110% hard for 90 minutes?
CM - Anderson - Carrick is far from attack minded and Park is an all-rounder so you have to have some sort of attacking threat, these days only Anderson can really provide that from CM so he is another obvious choice for me. Scholes' passing ability will be missed but if he tries anything like in the Fa Cup Semis then he'd be off soon anyway.
LW - Nani - I know Giggs will play whether its CM or LM but no matter how much of a legend he is, he simply shouldn't. He isn't really quick enough anymore for a match of this calibre and at CM (were maybe his speed wouldn't be as neccessary) he isn't as good as the other natural CMs. Not to mention the whole affair thing going on for Giggs. Nani therefore gets the spot by default (and because in a slightly defensive team, he provides an attacking outlet)
ST - Rooney - Obvious really and also he can drop deep to help the midfield if they are in real trouble.
Scholes and Giggs can close the game out for the last ten minutes if we are winning. If we are losing, stick Hernandez and Rafael on and just go for it.
I think that would be a fairly strong gameplan and we could actually get more than 30% possession if so. If some of the Barca players are unfit (unlikely) then Giggs probably could play.
/random long post
Probably tl;dr but whatever. :D
Any opinion on the Barca team from Spain, Went? Or will it be generally the same as usual?
EDIT:
Hi Wenty