How to stop Lionel Messi

Posted Friday, May 06, 2011 by The Sun

ALEX FERGUSON will head for Wembley armed with the most detailed dossier EVER compiled about any player in a bid to stop Lionel Messi.

Ferguson has tapped into his wide network of scouts, staff and contacts - including his brother and Manchester United's chief European scout, Martin - to study Barcelona and Messi over the last two years.

Ever since United lost the 2009 Champions League final to Messi and Barcelona, Ferguson has wanted revenge.
Now they meet again in the final at Wembley on May 28. And the Old Trafford boss could not be better prepared to negate the threat from the world's greatest player.

Ferguson has statistics and information even the Argentinian maestro may not know about himself.

He knows how Messi gets the ball, what he does when he gets it, how to stop him getting it and how to neutralise him when he does.

Ferguson was the master of the understatement on Wednesday night, following United's 4-1 second-leg victory over Schalke which wrapped up a 6-1 aggregate triumph over the Germans.

When asked about how he will approach the final, Fergie said: "I think we'll be quite well prepared."

In fact, he has been preparing for their next meeting since the final whistle blew on United's disappointing 2-0 defeat in Rome two years ago.

Ferguson was so annoyed that Barcelona had undone him because he felt his players simply did not follow orders.

The United boss has stopped Messi before. The Barca star was completely shut out over two legs of the 2008 semi-finals when United held the Catalans to a goalless draw in the Nou Camp and then won the return 1-0.

But it was a different story in Rome's Olympic Stadium when the little maestro scored the second goal in Barca's 2-0 win.
Ferguson believes Messi has got even better since then - but so has his analysis on how to stop him.

The United boss will not rely just on his staff at Old Trafford.

He will also talk to close friend Jose Mourinho whose Real Madrid side were dumped by Barca in the other semi.

And Ferguson, 69, has also used his own eyes, too, rather than take in live games or replays on TV and recordings.

After United beat Schalke 2-0 in the first leg of their semi in Gelsenkerchen on April 26, the team stayed over in Germany rather than fly straight back to England after the match as they normally would.

And the following day, Ferguson did not travel back with the team - but instead was on a plane to Madrid to watch Messi, 23, score both goals against Madrid in the first leg of the other semi.

Many may think Mourinho is not the best sounding-board, having been well beaten by Barca in the semi-finals and thrashed 5-0 in the Nou Camp in La Liga earlier this season.

But Real blotted out Messi in the Copa del Rey final - which they won 1-0 - and also in the most recent league meeting, a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu.

And, of course, he also steered Inter Milan past Barcelona in last season's semi-final on the way to winning the Champions League.

So Mourinho can advise Fergie where he got it right - and where he got it wrong.

Ferguson said: "I speak to him quite a lot. His experiences with Real Madrid could be useful. You always take any information angled in that way and Jose is very helpful."

Another pal of Ferguson's, Sam Allardyce, believes man-marking Messi will not be an option for United.

The former Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn boss said: "Nobody's good enough to man-mark him - Lionel Messi could elude anybody.

"What you have to do, as a player, is make sure that you're aware of him.

"Whenever Messi is in your area or in your space, you've got to take responsibility for him.

"If you look at Barcelona's first leg against Real Madrid in the Champions League, it was only after Real had Pepe sent off that he found the space that he could work in to eventually destroy any hopes Real had of getting through to the final.

"He can be blocked out by more of a team effort, rather than any individual man-marking him."

If United do find a way to halt Messi, Argentinian World Cup-winner Ossie Ardiles believes they will have stopped a footballer on his way to being considered the greatest ever.

Ardiles reckons Messi will surpass both Pele and Diego Maradona because he will have played his football at the very highest level all his career.

Tottenham legend Ardiles admitted: "For some time I thought that Diego could never be surpassed, nor Pele. But no longer.

"I would now say that Lionel Messi will go down in history as the No 1 player of all time, the best that there ever was.

"The big difference is that Maradona played his club football in Argentina, then in Italy, while Pele stayed in Brazil. And during their time the pressures were less intense than they are now.

"Messi is under pressure all the time, and has to play in incredibly high-intensity games all of the time, the Champions League being the perfect example."

It is a pressure he enjoys and thrives in... just like the man who has been plotting to stop him for two years.

If Ferguson's groundwork and best laid plans can't do it, then nothing can.