And the oscar goes to... 

Katalonski grobar će vjerojatno napasti Manchester s boka.

Ako ja dobro predviđam, Mandža bi mogao susret početi od prve minute jer će Bayernu trebati vođa navale s obzirom da očekujem duboko postavljen Manchester.

Moyes neće puno mijenjati u odnosu na prvu utakmicu, a bunker, ili bilo koju gustu obranu se najlakše probija s boka, da bi to imali efekta, moraš imati nekog ko je prijetnja protivniku unutar kaznenog prostora.

Možda zaigraju i Muller i Mandža, kao dva napadača u 4-2-4 formaciji.

Očekujem kišu centaršuteva i napad na lijevu stranu Manchesterove obrane.

Očekujem da će Bayern krenuti u Yup modu, pa će nakon što zabije dva komada prešaltati na mirni, strpljivi Pep-ovski posjed lopte.

"Es kribbelt" - FCB vor Manchester

I ja se ovome nadam i onda bi bez problema bilo 4-1

Tactical changes Pep Guardiola must make for United

In a rather surprising turn of events, Bayern Munich find themselves in a situation where they are going to have to fight tooth and nail to ensure progression in the Champions League against a not-so-highly rated Manchester United. Tactically speaking, there are a quite a few things that Pep Guardiola should change if he wants to make sure he can move on to the next round.

Use width

When you have wingers with the quality of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, you have a number of options on how to use them. This season we’ve frequently seen Robben drift into the center into almost a #10 position, where he can distribute the ball or shoot. But against a parked United bus, the best option will be to have both Robben and Ribéry as wide as possible to stretch the defense.

The first leg at Old Trafford saw a lot of Robben and Ribéry drifting into the center or just outside the box, allowing the midfield trio to maintain possession and move the ball into the final third. While they were effective at keeping the ball and reclaiming the ball when they lose it, they struggled to play the ball forward with any great effect and couldn’t play it out to the wings with much effect.

Crossing the ball didn’t do much either without Bayern’s best target man, Mario Mandzukic. Thomas Müller worked relatively hard but didn’t do much in the false 9 role, and when crosses did come, he didn’t react well. Speaking of false 9’s…

Start a striker

Mario Mandzukic has to start in the Allianz Arena, no question. The team just looks better when he’s on the pitch. The false 9 experiment with Mario Götze and Thomas Müller was fun for a while and a few times has provided us with some wonderful football (see first game against Manchester City for details). But for the most part, it hasn’t lived up to some of the expectations.

Bayern lacked any sort of killer instinct in the box at Old Trafford. It’s time to bring in some of that instinct and let Mario Mandzukic play.

Play more direct

It goes without saying, but Bayern need to play with more intensity on Wednesday. The best way to do this is to be more direct and to add players to the starting line-up who can add that approach and to stop playing so many horizontal passes.

Horizontal passes can be very useful in maintaining possession and opening up opportunities on a different area of the pitch. But they can also be overdone, and last Tuesday Bayern seemed to be rather infatuated with playing horizontal even though they weren’t accomplishing much of anything. Bayern needs to focus on playing the ball forward as much as they can.

Bayern need players who can play directly at take chances. Tiki-taka tends to glorify tap-in goals, which are fine when they happen. But the team needs to take some risks and actually shoot the ball from a distance, or cross the ball to Mandzukic.

Bayern also shouldn’t be afraid of pulling a counterattack once in a while, which is a weapon in their arsenal that seems to have been forgotten. Because Bayern still have the advantage with the away goal, Manchester United could be forced to open up a little bit and attack. Once they do, Bayern should implement some Jupp Heynckes football and absorb the pressure then get a goal off the counter in they can. They have players like Arjen Robben, Franck Ribéry, Mario Götze, Thomas Müller, and Mario Mandzukic at their disposal who are all leathal on the counter. Guardiola, I know you’re reading this, and don’t be afraid to use the occasional counterattack. The team knows how to do it.

Don’t get caught with too high a line

A big problem for Bayern last week was the high line defense being caught too far up the line. Jérôme Boateng didn’t have his best game in a Bayern shirt but he did bail out Javi Martinez a couple times, who lacked the pace to play that far up the pitch as a center-back.

The center-back pairing on Wednesday is almost certain to be Boateng and Dante unless some sort of disaster occurs during training. Bayern will have to make sure that their defense isn’t tricked into playing too high up the pitch and getting caught out by a United counter-attack.

Guardiola got some tactical choices wrong last week. It’s time to correct them and bring Manchester United back to Earth on Wednesday.

Bayern must answer the wake up call to beat Manchester United

Bayern Manchester United preview: It is not time to panic, but definitely to react. FC Bayern has to come out of its worst stretch of the season to win its Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday against Manchester United. Despite poor preparation.

Since nothing that affects the first team happened during the weekend, for both clubs, the usual tactical preview is replaced by a full-on editorial. Details about who is missing and who should play in the “possible lineups” at the bottom.

Bayern goes into this rematch in ridiculously bad form by its own, high standards. A disappointing draw against Hoffenheim wasn’t the best way to get ready for the first United match. That game was a poor display of football against an overmatched English side. Then, Pep went ahead with a C-side against Augsburg, earning a defeat in the process.

What are the problems to fix? Several answers could address that question, but let’s narrow it to two.

Soft spot in the center

First, our central midfield is leaky. Bastian Schweinsteiger is in poor form, and it comes from someone who describes him as his favourite player. Basti doesn’t have a natural partner as he did a year ago with Javi Martinez. Philipp Lahm does as well as he could over there, but the combination doesn’t bring the same amount of efficiency. The same thing can be said with Toni Kroos. It feels like no. 39 has to dominate the central midfield by himself or move up to playmaker to give his best performances. The two do not coexist very well.

Dubious decisions

Secondly, Pep Guardiola has put forward a questionable rotation, which contributed to the loss against Augsburg this weekend. It’s nice to get an “update” on the young players, but the defeat isn’t the right way to get prepared for a big game.

Bayern doesn’t have any momentum against a United team that says “hey, we stopped them in the first leg. We have nothing to lose”. In sports, it often is harder to perform in that kind of situation than when you are on a roll. You always do better when your feet are moving than when they are stuck in the grass.

Am I being too negative? Is everything going according to plan when starters are barely used if not carrying a CL suspension?

Let’s compare to Jupp

Straight comparisons are not good, although necessary. Before taking on Juventus and beating them 2:0 in the first leg of the CL quarters, FCB had its legendary 9:2 against Hamburg. Guys like Javi, Schweinsteiger, Robben, Ribéry and Müller all played. Jupp Heynckes sure used rotation to give more responsibilities to Gustavo, Shaqiri and Pizarro but he kept the starters going by giving them 30 to 60 minutes of play. Only Mario Mandzukic and Gomez were out. A lot of guys had great momentum.

If less impressive, the following 1:0 against Frankfurt also featured first-team starters for at least 25 minutes each. Javi and Schweini were in central midfield for 90 minutes.

Jupp Heynckes knew what he was doing. It was about managing a rotation, not preventing the guys from getting any action. This Wednesday, Bayern will not have benefited from any of this. It will require extra motivation to get going, in a more dangerous situation. No, that doesn’t erase what has been done this season. What it does is increasing risks.

Changes required

But let’s assume that Pep has played his cards right. What does Bayern need to do to beat Manchester United?

A terrific start. If David Moyes has any brains, he will try to put FCB under early pressure, hoping for the kind of early goal that all coaches want to have. Bayern should look forward to take real control of the game, not just possession to pass the ball around.

Let’s not B.S. ourselves: the endless tiki taka has to stop. No, I’m not saying that the passing game has to change radically. What I am saying is that Bayern should stop being so damn afraid of setting up shots and sending passes forward in the last third of the pitch. This is how they win games this year! This is how they won games last year! This is the Bayern Way!

The first game against United showed that when the Bavarians produce runs and passes near and inside the area, some of their plays become clear-cut chances. Even the most stubborn defences in Europe have gone down against focused Reds. There is no excuse to spare United a second time on Wednesday.

The team defence also has to become more compact. Central defenders have often been blamed for the goals conceded, but most of the mistakes were made in front of them. Boateng and Dante have bailed out their colleagues a little too often to my taste.

Remember how to counter-press?

The work starts from the front, with a striker like Mandzukic who initiates the counter-pressing. It trickles to the central midfield, where the pressure increases to force the opponent to cough up the ball. Again, this is the Bayern Way.

What happens if this year’s Bayern doesn’t deliver a semi-final? I’m not getting into that yet. This team has everything it takes to blow Manchester United out of the park if firing on all cylinders.

Yet, that doesn’t mean I can be comfortable predicting a blowout. I think that the odds are only 60-40 in Bayern’s favour, due to poor recent form and a bad record against English teams at home in the last couple of years.

And yet… due perhaps to superstition, I will predict a 2:0 win. Anything less would be a miserable failure.

Possible lineups