Real Madrid (H) - Tues 11th Feb, 20:00 | CL | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction?

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Posted in the La Liga thread for the game tonight but relevant here too, the team we're likely to face on Tuesday:

1000018479.jpg

Maybe Mendy, Camavinga or Modric come in against us.
 
I'm hoping Pep mixes it up a bit and goes for the long ball to Haaland now and again, he's getting better with his feet, we won't win with a slow methodical build up cos we're nowhere near our best when it comes to passing and controlling the ball.
 
noseve said:
I'm really encouraged by Khus, and am happy to delete from memory his first 4 minutes in a City shirt.

**Cricket reference warning **
Graham Gooch started with a pair (0 in both innings) for England. Became our leading test runs scorer.

Let's face it - we know that Akanji/Nunes/Gavrdiol will get skinned. Any argument against this is surely just bravado.

Khus would at least be an unknown quantity - plus what would it do for his confidence? There's also the chance that Vinicius' fragile ego won't like being dumped on his arse by somebody younger than him. He might even cry again :-)

I think Khus will prove to be the pick of the January window.

Megapologies about the cricket ref :-l
Click to expand...

Agree he will prove the pick of this group of signings, but in the long term.

In a foot race, yes, he's faster than those named, but it's way more complicated than that. He's had two weeks to learn how we play: we saw with Rodri and Mahrez that that can take a year. He can barely speak the same language as the guys around him. The standard in a champions league knockout game is the highest it gets and he's never even played a Champions League game.

I disagree that he's an unknown quantity. I've seen him play twice and watched his highlights from France and he's 1/ someone who flies into tackles (has given away free kicks 30 yards from goal doing this on both appearances for City) and 2/ is clearly, at this point, easily rattled. That will change with time but nobody's doing him any favours by pretending that's not the case right now.

I think it'd be sacrificing him to the wolves to throw him into that situation. I think it would destroy his confidence when he inevitably gets rinsed by Vinicius in the biggest game of his life, and to do that to him would show a real disregard for his long term development.

Akanji needs to step up.
 
I always fancy our attack against teams who don't sit in - but can't ignore the fact that we all want to look away every time anybody runs at us.
Realistically, we'll probably need at least 6 or 7 goals over the tie to go through. We're capable of that - and RM can be fazed just like anybody else, by a quick couple of goals, so fingers crossed.

And I'd still rather have a really tough Tuesday/Wednesday match than a simple Thursday one!
 
noseve said:
I always fancy our attack against teams who don't sit in - but can't ignore the fact that we all want to look away every time anybody runs at us.
Realistically, we'll probably need at least 6 or 7 goals over the tie to go through. We're capable of that - and RM can be fazed just like anybody else, by a quick couple of goals, so fingers crossed.

And I'd still rather have a really tough Tuesday/Wednesday match than a simple Thursday one!
Click to expand...

It makes most sense for them to keep it tight and look to hit us on the break. Pep will back us to unpick that but based on recent form I think we're more likely to get battered here.

I go in with hope more than expectation.
 
I don't want to see Nunes, Akanji or Gundogan anywhere near the team.

Akanji at right back if he is to play but absolutely not at CB

Pep has to go with Dias and Stones at CB.

Savinho has to start, our best attacking player alongside Marmoush right now.

Foden behind Haaland.

Hoping for Nico at CDM, otherwise we are going to get the midfield that got ripped a new one against Arsenal.
 
Dobsy said:
Agree he will prove the pick of this group of signings, but in the long term.

In a foot race, yes, he's faster than those named, but it's way more complicated than that. He's had two weeks to learn how we play: we saw with Rodri and Mahrez that that can take a year. He can barely speak the same language as the guys around him. The standard in a champions league knockout game is the highest it gets and he's never even played a Champions League game.

I disagree that he's an unknown quantity. I've seen him play twice and watched his highlights from France and he's 1/ someone who flies into tackles (has given away free kicks 30 yards from goal doing this on both appearances for City) and 2/ is clearly, at this point, easily rattled. That will change with time but nobody's doing him any favours by pretending that's not the case right now.

I think it'd be sacrificing him to the wolves to throw him into that situation. I think it would destroy his confidence when he inevitably gets rinsed by Vinicius in the biggest game of his life, and to do that to him would show a real disregard for his long term development.

Akanji needs to step up.
Click to expand...
In recent games Akanji has been a definite liability
 
Dobsy said:
Agree he will prove the pick of this group of signings, but in the long term.

In a foot race, yes, he's faster than those named, but it's way more complicated than that. He's had two weeks to learn how we play: we saw with Rodri and Mahrez that that can take a year. He can barely speak the same language as the guys around him. The standard in a champions league knockout game is the highest it gets and he's never even played a Champions League game.

I disagree that he's an unknown quantity. I've seen him play twice and watched his highlights from France and he's 1/ someone who flies into tackles (has given away free kicks 30 yards from goal doing this on both appearances for City) and 2/ is clearly, at this point, easily rattled. That will change with time but nobody's doing him any favours by pretending that's not the case right now.

I think it'd be sacrificing him to the wolves to throw him into that situation. I think it would destroy his confidence when he inevitably gets rinsed by Vinicius in the biggest game of his life, and to do that to him would show a real disregard for his long term development.

Akanji needs to step up.
Click to expand...
You make some good points, but I never suggested that pace came into it. By skinning, I just meant that the three I mentioned will be beaten time and time again (by their own errors and back-pedalling as much as by any great RM play).

When it comes to one player running with the ball against another one, how 'the team plays' doesn't come into it.

A natural defender trying to actually close the attacker down will always get my vote over what we see, with monotonous regularity, in every game. Even when faced with average attackers.

The two biggest issues - which I refer to on here quite frequently (after all, if the team continue to do it, I'm entitled to keep complaining about it) are
1) Back-pedalling without even a thought of tackling until we have penned ourselves into our own area;
2) Making some half-arsed show of trying to block a shot from 5m away, instead of getting a foot on top of the ball and stopping it at source. I personally haven't played for years, but give me a ball right now, and I could swing it around somebody standing as far away as our lot were for most of the Arsenal goals.

The Brugges right-back received praise on here for keeping Phil so quiet. That's all he was doing - closing him down. Takes energy and concentration of course, obviously, but not any rocket science.
 
Gorbachev said:
I don't want to see Nunes, Akanji or Gundogan anywhere near the team.

Akanji at right back if he is to play but absolutely not at CB

Pep has to go with Dias and Stones at CB.

Savinho has to start, our best attacking player alongside Marmoush right now.

Foden behind Haaland.

Hoping for Nico at CDM, otherwise we are going to get the midfield that got ripped a new one against Arsenal.
Click to expand...
He’s going Akanji, Dias, Stones, Gvardiol imo
 
Dobsy said:
Agree he will prove the pick of this group of signings, but in the long term.

In a foot race, yes, he's faster than those named, but it's way more complicated than that. He's had two weeks to learn how we play: we saw with Rodri and Mahrez that that can take a year. He can barely speak the same language as the guys around him. The standard in a champions league knockout game is the highest it gets and he's never even played a Champions League game.

I disagree that he's an unknown quantity. I've seen him play twice and watched his highlights from France and he's 1/ someone who flies into tackles (has given away free kicks 30 yards from goal doing this on both appearances for City) and 2/ is clearly, at this point, easily rattled. That will change with time but nobody's doing him any favours by pretending that's not the case right now.

I think it'd be sacrificing him to the wolves to throw him into that situation. I think it would destroy his confidence when he inevitably gets rinsed by Vinicius in the biggest game of his life, and to do that to him would show a real disregard for his long term development.

Akanji needs to step up.
Click to expand...
He won’t play in this game. Too risky.
 
noseve said:
I'm really encouraged by Khus, and am happy to delete from memory his first 4 minutes in a City shirt.

**Cricket reference warning **
Graham Gooch started with a pair (0 in both innings) for England. Became our leading test runs scorer.

Let's face it - we know that Akanji/Nunes/Gavrdiol will get skinned. Any argument against this is surely just bravado.

Khus would at least be an unknown quantity - plus what would it do for his confidence? There's also the chance that Vinicius' fragile ego won't like being dumped on his arse by somebody younger than him. He might even cry again :-)

I think Khus will prove to be the pick of the January window.

Megapologies about the cricket ref :-l
Click to expand...
Good analogy, great batsman
 
Ederson
Lewis Dias Stones Akanji
Gonzalez (hopefully)
De Bruyne Grealish
Marmoush Haaland Foden
 
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