DBasia.news – Manchester United looked difficult when they faced Barcelona in the 2010-2011 Champions League final. Sir Alex Ferguson as the manager of the Red Devils at that moment admitted he was wrong in choosing tactics.
Manchester United defeated with a score of 1-3 in the match which took place at Wembley Stadium. The goals from Pedro Rodriguez, Lionel Messi and David Villa were only able to be replied to by Wayne Rooney once.
Ferguson admitted he was wrong to apply tactics when the position was 1-1. Rooney equalized in the 34th minute after Pedo had broken the deadlock seven minutes earlier.
Initially Ferguson wanted to assign Park Ji-sung as Messi’s bodyguard throughout the match. But he didn’t do it because he had different thoughts.
“I should have changed (tactics) in the first half and put Park Ji-sung to (guard) Messi. It was a mistake,” Ferguson told Gary Neville in an interview for SPORTbible.
“I’ll do it in the first half, then think that we just equalized and they might see the game differently so our game will be better.”
Manchester United are practically having trouble serving Barcelona’s possession. They were practically only able to keep up with the first ten minutes.
Ferguson’s decision not to closely guard Messi was disastrous in the second half. La Pulga restored Barcelona’s lead in the 54th minute with a hard shot horizontally.
The Manchester United defense is like being confused to keep Messi, who often goes down to the midfield sector. Ji-sung could have been the solution to this problem had Ferguson not changed his mind.
“We were actually quite good in the last 10 minutes of the first half. But if I put Park against Messi, I think we will beat them,” he added.
Messi’s goal practically ruined Manchester United’s mentality. David Villa’s goal then seemed to kill the match because Barcelona’s possession was increasingly difficult to suppress.
Not the First Task
Ferguson once gave a similar task when Manchester United met AC Milan in the last 16 of the 2009-2010 Champions League. Ji-sung does his job as Andrea Pirlo’s guard dog well.
Ji-sung is known as a persistent player and never stops running. However, his background as a player from Asia makes him often underestimated.
Even so, Ferguson and his team-mates at Manchester United have recognized Ji-sung’s quality. Figures like Paul Scholes to Wayne Rooney do not hesitate to compare their important role with Cristiano Ronaldo.