Aftermath

More on Barcelona today.
Paul Hayward singles out Rooney's positioning on the left, arguing that he would have been better served in a traditional forwards role, and while I agree that as the game wore on moving him inside could well have been the best option, in the middle of the piece he pretty much nails the actual problem - no one had a good game, it wasn't so much a tactical thing, as the number of players who didn't show:

Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Sergio Busquets eclipsed the Manchester United trio of Anderson, who was a passenger for the 45 minutes he stayed on the field, Michael Carrick, who had an off day, and the 35-year-old Ryan Giggs, who was asked to perform a task beyond his defensive abilities and ageing legs.

In this dispiriting scenario Rooney was a remote presence on the left, while Park Ji-sung scuttled fruitlessly up and down the right and Cristiano Ronaldo filled a centre-forward's role which, he grumbled in the mixed zone, is not his real vocation. At the end, United were chasing the game in a 4-2-4 formation, with Rooney, Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov all failing to pose much of a threat.

Even from a traditional attacking role could we really expect Rooney to make up for all that?
Ian Herbert does a very good job at rebutting this Rooney argument:

To extrapolate that conclusion is to overlook United's more fundamental flaw in the Eternal City. When Ferguson's side are ticking along and commanding their customary levels of possession, then Rooney is invaluable out there on the left. He certainly does not favour the wide role but it works. Holding midfielders find him easier to pick up when he is playing in the hole behind a striker but post him out wide, cutting inside on his far superior right foot, and he is far more difficult to stop.

Kevin McCarra is pretty sensible on The Guardian blog, no wholesale changes need come from a one-off bad performance:

There is no purge to be planned. United have had a splendid season by the ­standards of anyone other than irresistible Barcelona. Several members of the ­line-up were groggy in Rome, but this is a club with a habit of emerging from its own confusion just in time to snatch a trophy. Pep Guardiola's side, however, would not allow their opponents enough possession to mount a recovery. ...
United, in any case, ought not to have been so confused and accident-prone in the final. At the opener, the brilliant Andrés Iniesta strode through an ­inviting gap between Carrick and Anderson. Samuel Eto'o went on to make Nemanja Vidic look ponderous and Edwin van der Sar fallible as he broke through to finish at the near post. So shaken were United that gambles were taken prematurely. It might have been a 1990s tribute night in the second half when United seemed to blow the dust off a 4-2-4 system. This served to remind us why that kind of ­boldness was abandoned in the first place. The number of forwards is irrelevant if they have to wait and watch as their ­short-staffed midfield is overrun. ...
Ferguson and his men will get over it.

Oliver Kay isn't quite so sensible, but I'll just quote the start of his piece, because he was apparently in the dressing room after the game:

In their dressing room in the depths of the Stadio Olimpico, the Manchester United players sat in silence as Sir Alex Ferguson, crimson-faced, entered the room. Nobody knew what was coming, but the message was benign. “I could stand here and shout but I’m not going to do that,” he told them before instructing them to dwell on the disappointment long enough to ensure that it leaves them desperate to make amends when they return for pre-season training.

The tone was measured, but the message reflected Ferguson’s long-held belief that defeats must be dwelt on longer than successes. This had been a chastening experience for him and his players, humbled as they lost 2-0 to Barcelona in the Champions League final, and it is one that he expects them to learn from, just as he will strive to take his own lessons from a defeat that might have led him to wonder whether this United team is quite as “special” as he had thought.

Tevez thinks it would have all been so different had he, with his astonishing goalscoring record..., started the game:

“I wanted to play in the starting line-up in Rome but that decision was down to the coach.

“But with a strategy more attacking in the first minute then perhaps the result would have been different."

Did he arrive on the bench later than everyone else? If he watched the first ten minutes he'd have probably noticed how we spent 90% of it attacking Barcelona...
Mark Ogden has a very hypothetical article on Ronaldo - if Ronaldo does this, if Sir Alex does that, if Real Madrid do the other. One word - pointless.
Henry Winter has an interesting article on next season. Not a sensational overreaction to our defeat but a considered piece about how everyone fits in, and some speculation about Benzema joining us:

It is in attack that most significant action is required by Ferguson, being guided by the principle of conjuring most dazzle out of his two leading lights, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Ronaldo is at his most lethal raiding down the right while Rooney, currently utilised on the left, prefers playing in the hole. One of the myriad attractions of using Rooney centrally is that, being such a selfless soul, he will instinctively drop into midfield to help out, a quality United could have done with against Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

Rooney could prosper off Benzema. The French international would certainly give United a sharper spearhead; when the Lyons front man troubled United in the Champions League last season, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic voiced their respect for another talent to emerge from Stade Gerland. Ferguson has spoken of his admiration for Benzema before, and was linked with the striker last summer. ...

Berbatov lacks the pace to run behind defences but certainly has the technique to play the target-man. Everyone talks about Ferguson sorting out Tevez's future but he must address the Berbatov situation. His club-record £30.75million buy spent two-thirds of United's most crucial game of the year on the bench. Ferguson has two alternatives: cut his losses or start Berbatov week in, week out.

For all the fans' scepticism, selling makes little sense. Berbatov's expert first touch and ability to shield the ball means that he should be an important cog in the Big Red Machine. He rarely gives the ball away, even under intense pressure, and United's frequent profligacy in possession against Barcelona cost them dear.

Ferguson must now trust in Berbatov. The Bulgarian should be granted the chance to win over the fans, to live up to his price tag. If Ferguson continues to insist that left is best for Rooney (allowing him to move into dangerous central areas when shaking off his right-back marker) then Berbatov should be given a run in the hole.

The Stretford End would love to see Tevez staying and starting. Leaving aside United's concerns about paying money to an owner rather than a club, the £25 million it would cost to turn the Argentinian's rental into a permanent deal is excessive for a player viewed by Ferguson as an impact substitute. Ferguson must think about shaping his first team, not his bench, and the Tevez money could go into a Benzema fund.

He even gives us a starting XI for next season:

(4-2-3-1) Foster; Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Carrick, Hargreaves; Ronaldo, Rooney, Valencia; Benzema.

Which looks OK to me.

Matt Lawton comes to the exact conclusion, first off by saying it's midfield where we need strengthening and then by saying this:

On the evidence of recent weeks, it might still be worth trying to get Tevez at a knockdown price and then sell Berbatov. A courageous call, perhaps, but worth it if the right kind of players can then be acquired.

How does Tevez escape criticism, yet again - on the evidence of the season, Berbatov is better.

Alan Hansen tell us why we lost. To be honest, I didn't read it.

Sam Wallace tells us why we lost, and includes some actual praise of Ronaldo:

On the occasion of one of his greatest disappointments, the behaviour of Ronaldo was encouragingly gracious. On more than one occasion he glanced up at the stadium's big screen for a glimpse of that face he loves more than any other. He swerved a handshake with Carles Puyol as the Barcelona team applauded United up the steps but that was understandable. He never gave up on a pretty wretched night.

A logical mind would say that joining Real Madrid now is an even greater folly, so lost in Barcelona's shadow are they. But if Ronaldo's reasons for staying at United were that they were Europe's premiere team, then Wednesday night has weakened that premise. Yet for all his histrionics, Ronaldo has never been less than professional. If he turns up at United next season there's no reason to doubt he will probably end up top scorer again.

The Sun has an odd quote from Ronaldo which I haven't seen elsewhere:

Ronaldo said: “Ferguson did not tell me anything. Nothing.

“I didn’t realise I was to play as a striker. Against Arsenal in the semi second leg I played and played well but that is all.”

And as for the Ronaldo saga, the papers are split with some having Ronaldo gone, others having Real not wanting him anymore, so I'm ignoring them stories. The Sun has another piece full of speculation on Ronaldo being unhappy at United which I won't quote, its the usual stuff.

In bizarre news of the day, Stoke apparently want Paul Scholes as player coach. Paul Scholes? Leaving Man United? Surely not...