Joseph Kabuleta 4 minutes ago HOW MAN UNITED CAN BEAT LOFTY BAYERN MUNICH 1. United should employ old-style English pace. Deploy Valencia and Rooney on either wing, with Hernandez in the middle. Bayern are good at almost all things but they cannot handle real sprinters. 2. Sit back with virtually every player behind the ball. Allow Bayern all the possession they want in United’s half of the pitch. But when United nick the ball, the two wide runners take off like relay sprinters waiting for the baton; in this case a long ball over Bayern’s defense. 3. Guardiola’s Bayern love to press their opponents upfield, meaning that the central defenders are often stationed at the centreline. And yet Bayern defenders, especially Dante, are notoriously slow. One perfectly pitched over-the-top ball, picked up by Rooney, Valencia or Chicarito can cause a lot of havoc for the favourites. Playing that way, United will undoubtedly have several one-on-ones with the keeper. 4. Bayern fullbacks Lahm and Alaba are vital to the Germans’ attack and spend a lot of their time in the opposition half. With the right pass, fast wingers like Valencia can exploit those gaps to devastating effect. 5. David Moyes has been criticised, particularly by Van Persie, for spending too much time practising set-pieces. But with Bayern as the opponents, set-pieces are gold. The German giants, like all Guardiola clubs, are very shaky at set-play and any high ball floated into their box can cause some panic. HOW MAN UNITED CANNOT BEAT LOFTY BAYERN MUNICH 1. David Moyes will definitely not get his tactics right. In every likelihood he will not even pick the right team for the task at hand. On the other hand, the ultra-perfectionist that is Guardiola cannot allow himself to take United for granted. He must be using every training session and Bundesliga game to perfect his chosen tactics for that game. 2. The absence of Evra for the first leg (suspension) and, most likely, Van Persie for both legs (injury) leaves United exposed in crucial areas. Bayern’s super wingers Ribery and Roben will attack through the right flank to expose whoever stands in Evra’s place. The task of keeping the Robbery partnership at bay would be had enough for the experienced Frenchman much less for a stop-gap. 3. Manchester United’s defence is despicably poor and was exposed countless times by Olympiakos in the round of 16. The Greeks only had to take just one of their numerous chances and the task of taking on the reigning European champions would be theirs, not United’s. It’s difficult to see Bayern failing to punish such kamikaze defending. 4. Bayern are a team booming with confidence after a record-breaking Bundesliga campaign while United are very, very short on confidence as was evident during the derby mauling. 5. Bayern have the advantage of the second leg in Munich. When the draw was made, bookmakers put United at a humiliating 33-1 odd. All Champions league Quarter-finals will be live on Supersport on DStv on April 1st/2nd and 8th/9th
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:13:18 +0000
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