The former Manchester United boss has revealed that it would only have taken a cage for Manchester United to hold Messi in the second leg of quarters finals.
See his analysis:
“I think the United approach was different.
“In the first leg they tried to occupy that central zone. Messi’s position is easy to understand but it is not easy to create a cage to control him.
“He comes from the right, then stays in the middle, then [Ivan] Rakitic goes right and allows him to stay in the middle. It’s very difficult.
“Manchester United in the first match, zonally they occupied that area very well. When he came into the inside he was finding Fred, he was finding [Scott] McTominay coming to the inside all the time.
“But I think in [the second leg] because United were losing 1-0, they tried to start with a different perspective.
“Now it was [Paul] Pogba wide left, McTominay much more on the right and Jesse Lingard starting as a 10 behind the strikers.
“In front of the defensive line was only Fred. That’s the area that Messi comes to get the ball and when Messi has the ball one, one, one…you are dead.
“That’s why I never liked individual man-on-man against Messi.
“Messi’s a cage, you have to create a cage. Barcelona is Barcelona, they have better players than Manchester United. I think it’s normal they won.”
