Rio Ferdinand's tactical analysis of how Messi dominated Man Utd in '11 CL final is fascinating

Lionel Messi was absolutely unplayable in the 2011 Champions League final.

The Argentine scored his side’s second and was brilliant throughout as Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1.

Rio Ferdinand did all he could to stop Messi that day but was unable to do so.

11 years on from the final, Ferdinand has broken down the game in a tactical analysis video.

Posted on his YouTube channel, the Englishman speaks for several minutes about how Messi was able to dominate his side.

It makes for a fascinating watch and you can view it below… (Ferdinand speaks about Messi from 10:28 – 18:45)

Sir Alex Ferguson has previously said that the outcome would have been different had Ji-Sung Park man-marked Messi during the the game. It was an idea Ferdinand disagreed with.

Asked about Ferguson’s claims, Ferdinand said: “If we said he were going to man-mark him… this guy Messi is an alien! He was already being allusive for us two [Vidic and myself]. So we were basically playing with two-men down at this point.

“If you man-mark him with Park, he’s going to stand over here [the right-wing away from the game]. Now we’re three men down! They’ve got bodies everywhere in here [the middle].

“I don’t think even man-marking Messi in this game would have helped us. We weren’t a pressing team by nature. The best teams in this era, we had to fight with. We were the best at transitioning when we won the ball and would turn defence into attack very quickly.

“When you’ve got a team like this… man-marking Messi… he would happily stand there [the right-wing] and say ‘come with me’.

“All of a sudden the game would develop, [Andres] Iniesta would get the ball behind our midfield and all of a sudden bang [Messi runs into the striker position]. There will be a