Wednesday 2 May 2007

Mourinho Vs Benitez

Well, thank God that's all over.
I never want to see 2 teams managed by Mourinho and Benitez ever again play each other. Of course, we all knew in advance it was going to be like this, and yet subjected ourselves to the misery.
Jose, apart from boring the life out of us, got his tactics wrong last night. The long diagonal balls to Drogba, bypassing midfield, didn't work at all, with Carragher and Agger looking comfortable. But, crucially, there was no change for the entire game.
It was typical Mourinho - that one of the most highly sought after young attacking players in the world, Mikel, has been turned into a defensive midfielder. That Chelsea didn't try to finish the job in the first leg.
That his purchases - Kalou, Mikel, Wright-Phillips are not good enough. That his team cannot create opportunities from good play and skill (Lampard in particular being terrible). For the amount of money spent, it is a very poor return.
On the other side we have Liverpool - Benitez has his own problems, despite his team coping effectively last night. The Pool had the better chances and, arguably, deserved to go through. Some of his decisions were amazing though - keeping (even starting) Zenden on was a bad enough decision to be sacked on the spot. Overall, they made up for their lack of quality with energy and enthusiasm and will be tough opposition in the final.

Who will they meet there? We shall see tonight, I think United can get a draw, hell maybe even win it! Optimism worked for JJ last night, so I'll do the same, and hopefully I won't regret it!

Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com

7 comments:

Mal said...

I agree that Utd will go through. Milan to score first but Utd will score late on to ensure an all english final. Bring it on.

Unknown said...

United will definitely score and if Vidic is back I don’t see Milan getting many. That’s if he’s fully fit though. Inzaghi is a massive boost for the home team though, as is Gattuso whom I hope lasts the pace tonight. He had Scholes in his pocket in the last game until he got taken off and his influence will be huge should Milan take the lead.

Too hard to call, first goal wins and I think that goal will go to… Milan.

Unknown said...

So obviously it wasn't too hard to call. Long day.

Mal said...

Where's todays post? Analysis please.

Anonymous said...

Not difficult to analyse that one. United got thorougly rogered all over the pitch.

Anonymous said...

it's up to JJ, i'm too depressed to write one. the horror, the horror! and i need to do some work before i get fired...

Unknown said...

Gattuso last night was just incredible no one from United could touch him he was everywhere in that first half. As a United fan i'm just gutted.

United never even looked like scoring even in during the phase in the second half when the dominated possession for about 15 mins, the final ball was always lacking. the only clear chance that i can remember was Fletchers in the second half but even that was only half-chance.