We're better than last year

The papers are obviously concentrating on the Liverpool - Chelsea game today but there is still the occasional article on us.

Most of the papers reprint comments made by Ronaldo in a Spanish paper. Oliver Kay in The Times presents them in a rather strange way:

As someone who has gleaned most of his education about Manchester United from the club’s television station, Cristiano Ronaldo is not ideally placed to reflect on where his team ranks in the context of Old Trafford history, but, before setting off for Barcelona this morning, he suggested that he and his teammates could provide a “definite answer” by winning the Barclays Premier League or the Champions League in the coming weeks.

It is a claim that will irk United supporters of a certain age – some of them perhaps younger than Ronaldo, who is 22 – but the argument has begun. Even Sir Alex Ferguson ventured recently that this is “my best squad in terms of completeness” and has lauded the technical skills of Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Anderson et al, but to prove that they are the finest team in United history is another debate entirely, one that is likely to be forgotten if they do not, at the very least, overcome Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final, starting with tomorrow’s first leg at the Nou Camp.

First off we have the claim that because Ronaldo is only 22 he has no right to an opinion, but the strangest thing seems to be the reference to "supporters of a certain age", without any real sense of what age those supporters are, indeed, the "certain age" seems to be used to mean "any age".
This report in The Independent gives a straighter version of the comments:

"It makes me feel good. He [Ferguson] has been at the club for 17-20 years, he has signed great players, incredible goalscorers," Ronaldo told the Spanish newspaper Sport. "I also think that this is the most talented team, but you can only confirm this at the end of the season, seeing what the team has won.

"There is a lot of talent, I think that we are going along the right path. Game after game we have shown that we have a fantastic team, with a lot of talent and magnificent players, but at the end of the season we will be able to provide a definite answer if this team is the best Manchester United side of all time.

"If we win the Champions League or the Premier League, we will have a better idea."

The Guardian has comments by Michael Carrick on tomorrow's game and on last year's semi-final:

"Last year we ended up a little bit thin and couldn't pull it off in Milan when it mattered but we now have enough bodies to cope with going for the title and the Champions League. It is the depth of the squad which has got us into this position," said the 26-year-old. "These games are won and lost on little details. We need them to go our way but we certainly have the players and the confidence, so hopefully it will work in our favour. It will be a test but I'd like to think it will be more of a test for them."

From the Barcelona side Sid Lowe in The Guardian looks at Thierry Henry:

Henry has scored 14 goals in 40 games, seven in the league - a goal fewer than Lionel Messi, despite playing over 1,000 minutes more, and, in the league, seven less than Samuel Eto'o, who has missed over half of the season. Nor has he always been available, suffering with an achilles problem and chronic back pains brought from London. One newspaper declared: "The man who was supposed to solve the problems of Ronaldinho's absences has become a problem in his own right."

Clive Tyldesley in The Telegraph looks at the effect the Man Utd - Chelsea game at the weekend might have on the ties:

Sustaining a championship challenge at home and abroad is asking a lot of even the most exorbitantly assembled squads. Since United's improbable treble season a decade ago, only four of the fourteen European Cup finalists have managed to win their national title in the same season. The Champions League is a hard league for champions. Each of the seven finals since 1999 has featured at least one team from outside the top two in their domestic standings.

I'll finish in the opposite manner to usual, with this from Henry Winter in The Telegraph previewing the Barcelona game:

In Ronaldo, United have the Footballer of the Year. In Rooney, United have a striker made for this Nou Camp stage. In Carlos Tevez, United have a technically accomplished forward blessed with an exceptional work-rate. In Rio Ferdinand, United have a defender comfortable in possession who would stroll into Barcelona's back-four. Throw in individuals of the quality of Scholes, Patrice Evra, Nani and Anderson, and United are more the Total Football made famous by Cruyff with Holland than the 21st-century answer to the old Wimbledon, as Cruyff bizarrely believes.