After our 1-1 draw with Bayern in the first leg, David Moyes has probably come in for criticism and praise in equal amounts from the United fans.
After eight days of thinking about it, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that Moyes played a blinder. As I said after the match, I don’t want this to be the future of Manchester United but, given the situation right now, I’ll accept it for the pragmatism it is.
Moyes has said all along that he wanted to make both legs of this tie meaningful.
Had we gone all gung-ho last week and made it a willy-waving contest, there’s every possibility that we’d be heading for the Allianz Arena tonight looking to overcome a 3-0 or 4-1 deficit and that ain’t happening!
I think Moyes showed great maturity with his tactics and showed the strength of his character. He knew that fighting off the ropes like that, especially at Old Trafford, would bring criticism but he’s clearly strong enough to take that and point to the fact that we live to fight another day as the end that justifies the means.
This tie is still very much alive and, perhaps against all logic, I’m feeling quite confident about it.
I suspect we will see a bit more of the same from the team tonight – defend in numbers and try to catch Bayern on the break. However, this does become a bit of a test of Guardiola’s character.
The fact is that Bayern don’t really need to pile forward looking for goals. If we defend in numbers and Bayern defend in numbers, the game ends 0-0 and Bayern go through on the away goal rule.
However, you do get the feeling that Bayern don’t play it that way and that they will want to exert their superiority, especially in front of their home crowd who simply aren’t accustomed to seeing their side do much other than win at the Allianz.
And so the stage is set for United to attempt to repeat what they did at Old Trafford last week; only this time without Danny Welbeck’s brain-fart to thwart the plan.
That all said, I do think that United will have to be a little more adventurous tonight. The way I see it, we need to score two goals.
Yes, by going for those two goals, we may well have to leave some space at the back and we will need to pass far, far better than we did at Old Trafford last week in order to keep possession for more than five seconds at a time but, the fact is that it doesn’t matter too greatly if Bayern score one or two of their own.
A 2-2 scoreline will suit us just fine.
So, whilst Guardiola strongly believes that we will defend deep again, I do wonder if we might just have a little surprise up our sleeve for him. If we can score the first goal tonight then it suddenly becomes Bayern who are living on a knife-edge.
Besides, maybe Pep hasn’t noticed but we’ve actually been better away from home this season. I’m not sure where he gets this idea that we’re far more attacking at home. That really hasn’t been the case for much of this season.
I think this is going to be one hell of a match and whilst it has to be conceded that Bayern are favourites, I think they will know from the first leg that we have the players to cause them major problems.
Come on United!
