United Looking For Another Magic Night Against Bayern

In 1999 it was Sheringham and Solskjaer, who could it be in 2010? Berbatov? Nani? Macheda? All we know as that United will need at least a goal to advance to the semi finals.

My hope for the United formation tomorrow is as follows:

——Van Der Sar——

-Rafael–Vidic-Ferdinand–Evra-

-Valencia-Carrick-Fletcher-Nani–

——-Berbatov——

——Macheda——-

Although I expect to see:

——Van Der Sar——

-Neville–Vidic-Ferdinand–Evra-

——Scholes——-

–Nani-Carrick-Fletcher-Park–

——-Berbatov——

As I said earlier, I don’t know if playing Berbatov up front by himself against a stern a defense as Bayern Munich will be enough. That being said, I think Sir Alex will go with Berbatov up front on his own with hope that Nani and Park will offer sufficient support.

Despite Park’s recent form I still think that Nani and Valencia provide the most danger on the wings and what United need more than anything tomorrow is a goal. I think United are at their best when there are lots of midfielders high up the park pressuring, that’s why I think going with the most attacking wingers in our line up is the right decision. Still a 4-4-2 leaves you very open to counter attacks, and in Munich United’s five man midfield were overrun, so a four man midfield may just get obliterated. Still it’s a very interesting debate, we’ll have to wait for tomorrow to see if Sir Alex gets it right.

I’ll leave you with a video and pleas from Sir Alex and Ryan Giggs for a raucous atmosphere tomorrow, similar to the one we saw against Barcelona in 2008. COME ON UNITED!

Sir Alex: Old Trafford has got that suction towards the goal when we are really in full flow and the crowd is really up for it. The ball just seems to get sucked towards the Stretford End. It’s an amazing feeling. There are too many of these moments to mention where we decide games in the last 15 minutes. It’s not always entirely because of the team, it’s because of the fans too. They make it happen. Hopefully that’s the case against Bayern. There’s no better sight. Last minute goals are not by accident. It’s the nature of our stadium, it’s the nature of the way we take risks to win the game.

Ryan Giggs: We’ve all seen some great nights here and hopefully this can be another one. We are all part of that – the players, the fans, coaches. There is no better feeling as a player with the Old Trafford crowd behind you on a Wednesday night. A big European game against Bayern Munich is what you become a professional footballer for; this is what you look forward to. You know that the crowd are going to get behind you and you know that it makes it very difficult for the opposition. If we’re keeping the ball the crowd gets behind you. That is what we are trying to achieve, we are trying to create that atmosphere. It is mostly down to the players to get that atmosphere going and playing well, getting shots off, putting in tackles, getting crosses in. Then we know that the crowd will get behind us. We want to get off to a good start, but Bayern are a good team as well and there are going to be moments in the game when they might keep the ball, and that’s where we all have to be patient. But hopefully in the end it will be one of those special Old Trafford nights.