Best Football Boots

Football matches that were once a matter exclusively focussed on the teams involved have evolved in recent times with sub-texts, which sometimes become the dominating story, involving key players and rival managers or fans all played out against a background of sporting product placement and enhancement. Hence the Barcelona v Real Madrid semi-final attracted as much attention for the rivalry between the two managers, Guardiola and Mourinho as for the match itself. Prior discussion of the matches themselves focussed on the rival claims of Ronaldo and Messi to be the best footballer in the world.

The two players themselves were not simply competing for rival football teams but for rival boot manufacturers. Like medieval knights at a joust Messi and Ronaldo wore the favours-in this case the boots- of their beloved suitors Adidas and Nike. Moreover the boots in question were top of the range and in direct competition. Messi wore the top of the range Adidas——- while Ronaldo sported Nike’s latest version of the Mercurial Vapor Superfly III. In the event, as you know, Barcelona triumphed largely due to a couple of flashes of Messi brilliance to set up a replay of the 2009 final with Manchester United which Barcelona won narrowly but decisively.

The general sense about the forthcoming final is that Barcelona, a term followed by all journalists with the automatic phrase—the greatest team in the world (ever!?)–,will be too strong for a Manchester United team that,  while becoming the most successful team in English football history is seen by many as inferior to early teams and still a team in progress. Most analysts expect Barcelona to dominate possession of the ball with their brand of precise and amazingly accurate pass and move football and that eventually that possession will translate into a goal or goals and victory.

The fact that the Barcelona brand of possession is backed up by the breathtaking dribbling and goal scoring skills of Messi inclines most to see a Barcelona victory as inevitable. Mourinho attempted to counter Barcelona’s attacking threat and the quality of the Xavi, Iniesta, Messi threat by employing a centre back Pepe in midfield to flood that area of the pitch and also to prevent any offensive threat from Alves. This was a strategy which the Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson deployed successfully against Barcelona in Spain in the semi-final first leg of 2008 seeking to close down the time and space available to Xavi and Iniesta by flooding the midfield with his most energetic and speedy midfielders.

For Mourinho, as for Ferguson, the proof of any strategy is in the result. In Mourinho’s case the strategy tasted of the ashes of defeat and he was roundly abused by all and sundry for his ‘negative’ strategy. If we strip away the after the match hyperbole the first leg was decisively tipped Barcelona’s way shortly after half time when Pepe was sent off. Thereafter Real were struggling and might still have been left with a chance in the second leg until Messi scored his sublime second goal. Yet even in the return in Barcelona and even after Barcelona scored Real fought back to draw the match and at times threatened to save the tie. Certainly for Ferguson and his key staff an analysis of both the Real – Barcelona semi-final ties ought to offer Manchester United clues as to how to defeat Barcelona and we know Ferguson has plotted the defeat of a Barcelona team which included Messi, Iniesta and Xavi over two legs in 2008.

Footballers, like us all, lack all sorts of knowledge and intelligence but they know about players and the game itself and cannot be easily kidded about who is a good, bad or indifferent player. Footballers, like all sportspeople, also function better the more confident they feel. Ferguson is apparently a master at instilling confidence in his players. In a game such as this it is important that the Manchester United players avoid absorbing all the hype about the wonder that is Barcelona. To be sure Barcelona possesses three wonderful players, one of whom, Messi, can win them any game. However, even he doesn’t win them EVERY game and beyond Messi, Iniesta and Xavi Ferguson can justifiably tell his players that man for man they are superior to Barcelona.

If you compare the goalkeepers and back four players of each team only Alves from Barcelona would get in the Manchester United team. If you were combining a mid-field three then Xavi and Iniesta would be the first two selected but Busquets wouldn’t be the third or fourth for that matter and if you were picking three up front then you would have Valencia and Rooney alongside Messi.  That said Barcelona might still be a better team than Manchester United. It may be that the parts of their team combine to produce a better whole than Manchester United. But if I was in a cup final team where I thought seven of our players are better than seven of their players I’d be fairly hopeful of coming out on top.

Much will depend upon whether Ferguson selects the right strategy and selects the right team for this game. At one level his task is fairly uncomplicated because he doesn’t have the problem of guessing who Barcelona will pick or how they will play. At another it is difficult because he has to pick a team specifically to defeat Barcelona and that will involve disappointing players who have done well for him not just this season but over a number of seasons. In my opinion Ferguson should follow his 2008 semi-final strategy and that followed by Mourinho but with a sharper focus on counter attacking than Mourinho showed at the Bernabau (although had Pepe stayed on and the game stayed 0-0 at 60minutes Mourinho might have made substitutions to effect a more counter-attacking focus).

To that end Ferguson needs to start the match with a midfield five and Rooney alone up top. The midfield five would include Park-the key midfielder in this match as against Chelsea- Valencia who would get forward to support Rooney, Carrick who might be able to release Rooney as well as acting as an anchor, Anderson and Giggs or Nani. My preference would be Nani because I think this game will be too quick for Giggs and the key for United is not simply to swamp the midfield and deny effective possession but to mount rapid, incisive counter attacks in support of Rooney.  But I expect Ferguson to go with Giggs. I am also presuming that Fletcher is unfit. If I’m wrong then he would be there in place of Anderson.

If Ferguson was sufficiently daring—he won’t be!—he would play Berbatov up front. Berbatov’s style of play is well suited to European style matches. He has great skill and with Rooney in the hole would create chances for Rooney. If Ferguson went with Berbatov up top with Rooney moving between the midfield and the front, Ferguson could play Park, Carrick, Giggs and Valencia in midfield with a reasonable expectation that they would make it very hard for Iniesta and Xavi to impose themselves on the match.  Valencia and Park also have the energy and speed to move into attacking positions rapidly whilst also being aware enough to support the midfielders and defenders, denying Pedro and Alves the chance to attack out wide. United also have an array of substitutes to be deployed in a manner appropriate to the rhythm and direction of the match.

This will be a fascinating match that may be decided by a moment of magic or a horrendous blunder. If it is a moment of magic then most money will be on Messi, in his adidas F50 adizero Prime, as its author but Rooney is no mean magician. This is the chance for Rooney to impress on a big international stage and show that he ranks up there with Messi and Ronaldo.  Rooney appears to be nerveless and confident in his ability but in Ronaldo’s last year at Old Trafford Rooney allowed himself to play second fiddle to the Portuguese maestro. I wonder if this left Rooney with the feeling that, good as he was, he was not as good as Ronaldo. If it did he is mistaken. Rooney is not as good as Messi but he is a better player than Ronaldo because, like Messi, he is not just individually skilled but is a real team player. While Ronaldo, brilliant as he is, might not be quite as good as he thinks he is and while Messi is indeed as good as everyone thinks he is, Rooney is a better player than he actually thinks he is. Hopefully he will prove something of the sort to himself and everyone in this the biggest match of his career. And if he isn’t quite as good as Messi it’s worth remembering that Messi will have to weave his magic against a far better group of defenders than Rooney will. Maybe Rooney’s Total 90 Laser III boots will give Nike the victory Ronaldo couldn’t pull off!

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