Since Liverpool have already proven they can beat PSV in this season's tournament, and Chelsea face a Valencia side likely to be decimated by suspensions, it's fair to say Manchester United, in a radical break with tradition, have been handed the hardest draw of the three English teams left in the Champions League.
United's opponents, Roma, do not suffer from the same dysfunctions that afflict Sir Alex Ferguson's side in Europe. They play with a similar shape to the one-up-front formation United use away; the difference is that it suits them, whereas it blunts United. Ferguson has muddled through the tournament with a method that straitjackets his most inspired attackers - Cristiano Ronaldo has still never scored in the Champions League, while Wayne Rooney has found the net in just one match, and that was three years ago; it could yet smother their chances.
Being spearheaded by a lone pivot is alien to United but Roma, in Francesco Totti, have a player who is completely at home in the role. Dropping deep to feed overlapping runners (especially Mancini) or to dart forward with ball at feet comes more naturally to him than it does to Wayne Rooney and will present Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic with a challenge they rarely face.
United's defenders prefer direct confrontation, and they are uncomfortable with drifters. Meanwhile Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes are not as diligent in tracking runners from deep as they should be. Lyon unravelled because Roma deftly undid the thread that had bound them together for so long.
Earlier today, Ferguson name-checked Danielle De Rossi and Mancini as Roma's main threats, but he would be unwise to rely on Totti succumbing to yet another bout of stage fright. And when their playmaker doesn't perform, as he frequently doesn't on the biggest platform, Roma's adlibbing is often prosaic but effective.
The best way to sunder Roma's script is to tear into them. Assuming Louis Saha recovers from his current injury so that United will have two fit strikers (as opposed to two healthy strikers, Alan Smith clearly being unfit to wear a United shirt), they should go 4-4-2 in the first leg in Rome. Because they don't want to go into the home leg having to recover a deficit, a scenario that would leave them exposed to Roma's expert counter-attacking.
