Manchester United’s treble winning former striker Dwight Yorke says Barcelona could struggle to deal with Chicharito and Wayne Rooney. The former Red Devil feels that Sir Alex Ferguson will have briefed his players on the threat of Lionel Messi and insists that the Premier League champions can win at Wembley. Yorke believes that Sir Alex Ferguson’s side can beat Barcelona in the Champions League Final but admits that the La Liga winners will start as favourites.
Pep Guardiola’s men have been unstoppable in both domestic and continental competitions this season but the former Red Devil feels that if any team can beat them, then the Old Trafford outfit have the quality to do it. Yorke, who has been working as a TV pundit for AD Sport, told Michael Nasrallah of Goal.com “As much as we sit down here and say Barcelona are the best, which they probably are, don’t tell me they cannot be beaten.” Yorke, who won the competition in 1999 as part of the famous treble winning side, believes that Sir Alex will have been briefing his players on how to quell the threat of the Catalan side’s dangermen – Lionel Messi and Xavi.
When asked how United can stop Barcelona, he said “Well, there is the United way. There is no other way. Sir Alex, as he always does, will highlight the danger of any team and will highlight who is the danger man. So you have to go for Messi and Xavi who represent the threat. He is always able to tell his players about the dangers that they have to try to eliminate and try not to make too many mistakes.”
However, the former Trinidad international insisted that the La Liga champions will have their own eye on United’s strike partnership of Wayne Rooney and Chicharito. “From there we have to see our threats. You know we have got Hernandez. Their defence is arguably their weakest part of their team and United will try to expose that as much as possible. Hernandez likes to run behind defenders” he said.
“If I am a defender I like to see players in front of me. When you have a player always running the other way, he is not only going to cause your team to stretch, but when you have players like Giggs who can find the pass he can be very dangerous.
“That threat will always play in the back mind of the players of the other team. And then you have Rooney who can come and fill up this gap and cause them problems. So they have two things that they need to concentrate on, Rooney coming from behind and picking up and Hernandez who does not want the ball behind and only wants it beyond the defenders. That has got to be a plus for Manchester United. It is all about taking your chances on the day. It is a one-off game.”
United have already secured the Premier League crown ahead of the huge clash at Wembley but Ferguson’s side have come in for criticism this season, with many questioning whether they are a great team. However, Yorke feels that the criticism is unwarranted, saying “I think too many people aren’t giving the team the credit they deserve. A lot of people have gone on about the fact that this team isn’t great to watch, and they aren’t as good as the team of 1999 and of the 2009 team. What’s all that about? I don’t understand where people are coming from.
“You can only beat the teams that are in front of you and they have done that day in, day out. It is not about being pretty, it’s about winning. So I think the comments are unfair on the effort the team and the manager have made this year. It’s a reflection on the other teams in the league if Manchester United can be a lesser side and still win the league title. More people should give the side the credit they deserve.”
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