Highlights

• Park Ji-sung was a man-marking expert who kept big names like Pirlo quiet in Champions League games.
• Ferguson regrets not instructing Park to mark Messi in 2011 CL final, despite Park's previous success.
• Messi still shone in the final, showing Park may not have been able to stop him even if man-marked.

Park Ji-sung is often mentioned when it comes to the debate over the most underrated players in Premier League history - and deservedly so. The indefatigable midfielder, who earned the nickname ‘Three Lungs Park’ because of his extraordinary engine, didn’t always get the credit he deserved during his playing career.

That’s largely because he wasn’t the biggest star at Manchester United, where he spent seven successful years of his career between 2005-2012. Signed for just £4 million from PSV Eindhoven, the South Korea international was happy to play wherever - and whenever - Sir Alex Ferguson wanted him to.

Never a moment’s bother to his manager, Park did a lot of the dirty work that typically went more unnoticed in the mid-2000s than it does these days. Ask the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez about Park’s contribution to United’s title triumphs during their time at Old Trafford and they’d have nothing but effusive praise for their old teammate.

Similarly, Ferguson always speaks incredibly highly of Park, who was a massive star in his home country during the peak years of his career. Now one of Man Utd's ambassadors, Park was even once named by Fergie as one of the three most underrated player he managed during his glittering coaching career, alongside Brian McClair and Ronny Johnsen.

However, it still irks Ferguson to this day that he failed to utilise Park as effectively as he feels he should have done in the 2011 Champions League final against Pep Guardiola's revered Barcelona side. Comfortably beaten 3-1 on the day by the Lionel Messi-inspired Catalan outfit, Ferguson harbours regrets about not deploying Park to do a man-marking job on Barça's key man.

Ferguson's Park Ji-sung tactic he never used

The Man Utd boss still has big regrets

Ferguson stated his belief that Man Utd would have beaten Guardiola's Barcelona in that final at Wembley had he told the reliable Park to stick on Lionel Messi in the second half. Speaking to LADBible in 2021, Ferguson said a tactical mistake cost the Red Devils the chance of winning a fourth European Cup at Wembley.

"That's where I lost the final against Barcelona at Wembley," Ferguson said insisted.

"I should have changed at half-time and put Ji-sung Park on Messi. That was a mistake, I realised that after 10 minutes."

Ferguson continued: "I was going to do it at half-time, then I said, 'Well, we just equalised before half-time, they may see the game differently, we may grow into the game better'. We were actually quite good in the last 10 minutes of that [half]. We came into it and we could have been in front. But if I'd played Ji-sung Park against Messi, I think we'd have beat them. I really do."

The legendary Man Utd boss added: “It was a fantastic goal Messi scored and he made another one. He was a great player but if there was a player who was going to do it, it was Ji-sung Park.”

Park Ji-sung was a man-marking expert

He kept household names quiet in the Champions League

Park produced some unbelievable man-marking performances for Ferguson in Europe. He famously kept AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo quiet over two legs of the 2009-10 Champions League in the Round of 16 after Ferguson told him before the game: “Your job today is not about touching the ball, it’s not about making passes, your job is Pirlo. That’s all: Pirlo.”

Pirlo later criticised Ferguson for the tactic, writing in his 2014 autobiography ‘I Think Therefore I Play’: "Even Ferguson, the purple-nosed manager who turned Manchester United into a fearsome battleship, couldn’t resist the temptation. He’s essentially a man without blemish, but he ruined that purity just for a moment when it came to me. A fleeting shabbiness came over the legend that night.

“On one of the many occasions when our paths crossed during my time at Milan, he unleashed Park Ji-sung to shadow me. The midfielder must have been the first nuclear-powered South Korean in history, in the sense that he rushed about the pitch at the speed of an electron.”

Park may still have struggled to stop Messi

Argentine was at the peak of his career and virtually unplayable

But Fergie regrets not instructing Park to do the same job on Barcelona’s star player during the 2011 Champions League final, which Pep Guardiola’s side won thanks to goals from Pedro, Messi and David Villa.

However, footage was posted to social media in the aftermath of Ferguson’s comments which suggests that a man-marking job from Park on Messi still wouldn’t have been enough to stop the Argentine forward. While Park managed to dispossess and frustrate Messi on a couple of occasions, the South Korean arguably wasn’t close enough to the Barça icon when he scored his crucial 54th-minute goal.

United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar probably shouldn’t have been beaten by that strike, but it was Park who Messi temporarily evaded to get the shot away. The fact is that Messi was in scintillating form that night and deservedly picked up the Man of the Match award after the final whistle.

This is one of the standout performances of the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner’s remarkable career and it’s likely that Barcelona still would have won the final, regardless of whether Park glued himself to Messi or not.