World's Best?

The Barclays Premier League (BPL) or better known to many as the English Premier League (EPL) ended just a few days back with Manchester United (MU) already winning the title 1 week back. MU were good this season but never look like they were playing great football. The league title was probably saved by those 2 lucky winning strikes by Macheda. Nevertheless, consistently grinding out wins in tough situations are still positive points to take note of but it should never happen to a team where many claimed to be the world's best.

It has never came across in my mind even once that MU this season were playing the best football. If anything, they were playing terrible at times. The sight of Barcelona celebrating and MU in despair signaled the end of 2009 Champion's League Final which was a match that proved to many that MU were far of the standard of being called world's best.

They were outplayed by Barcelona in every department. The midfield lacks any physical presence at all and that allowed Xavi and Iniesta, arguably 2 of the best passers in the game, to have time and space to move the ball around. Vidic once again, failed to proof himself in a big game and let Eto'o easily cut inside him to toe poke pass Van Der Sar who surely should have done better at his near post.

Before the game, there was a lot of hype on who was the better player between Messi and Ronaldo and the result was pretty obvious. For someone so small and young, little Messi just had more determination and strength to keep the ball than Ronaldo. You lay a finger on Ronaldo and he falls tumbling over while crying like somebody stabbed him but it takes 2 or 3 players to kick and push Messi before he falls to the ground. Another fault of Ronaldo was also his selfishness. Many times he could pass but he didn't. It was as if he tried to play the game alone to prove to people he was better than Messi. He grew desperate in trying to win by himself while Messi ignored the competition and played with his team. With all due respect, Ronaldo is a great player with a lot of skills but he will never be the best.

From the looks of things, I don't think MU's squad are strong enough to win the BPL and CL next year. If they sell Ronaldo and get a few other players than maybe, but at their current strength, I believe many teams can get a win against them if they go ahead and attack them.

Oh well, till next season!

By the Way, I'm a Liverpool fan. =)