Stoke vs. City Pre Match Thread

[kaz7]

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Thought Aguero said he was allright? Ffs

Not by the looks of it, let's hope Bony pulls his finger out tomorrow and not got bullied by stokes centre halves. Least with Yaya out we can keep the Delph,Fernandinho partnership going. Will make us move the ball a lot quicker.

 

[kaz7]

 

[venkatssv]

I believe if Yaya plays it will be a draw and we win if he doesn't....KDB/Kolarov to take free kicks

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Hart
Sagna
Demichelis
Otamendi
Kolarov
Fernandinho
Delph
De Bruyne
Silva
Sterling
Bony

Subs: Caballero, Clichy, Humphries, Fernando, Garcia, Navas, Iheanacho

 

[Bewar3them00n]

Yaya needs a rest, this should be part of a planned phasing out of the once great Yaya, or at least scribble out that "must play every game" clause in his contract, which just wastes his talent by wearing him out.
Silva being back is a great plus, if we can get the penetration down the flanks, and Bony shifts his arse into the box, we might should Stoke over. the midfield enforcers of Delph and Dinho will make us solid in the middle, hope Nacho gets some game time too

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

From the beeb@

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini begins his news conference with a gloomy injury update.
Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri, Pablo Zabaleta and Patrick Roberts are all still out.
However, goalkeeper Joe Hart is in the squad for Saturday's visit to Stoke.
"Joe worked yesterday and today without any problems so he's in the squad list," said the Chilean.

 

[bellsouth]

I hate it when MP says "hopefully back in 2 weeks" - for me this means we won't see Vinnie until January, hope I'm wrong, but god forbid anything happens to Otamendi now.

 

[mancity1]

On the other side of the coin it looks like Crouch will be missing and although he doesn't feature much these days he always gives our defenders trouble for some reason.

Our injuries continue to pile up though and we its long overdue that we get a decent run with them and get those on the sidelines back ASAP.

 

[PragueBlue]

Yes! No Yaya!!!

You might want to cast your mind back to the last time Yaya was away at the African Nations and see how that went. We were joint top going into that period. We were pretty much out of the title race by the time he came back IIRC.

 

[bluemoon98]

You might want to cast your mind back to the last time Yaya was away at the African Nations and see how that went. We were joint top going into that period. We were pretty much out of the title race by the time he came back IIRC.

we beat bayern munich and roma away without yaya. Wasnt just him being at AFCON the reason we fell behind.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

You might want to cast your mind back to the last time Yaya was away at the African Nations and see how that went. We were joint top going into that period. We were pretty much out of the title race by the time he came back IIRC.

Yeah, he was better back then. But how that's relevant to now I'm not sure.

 

[PragueBlue]

we beat bayern munich and roma away without yaya. Wasnt just him being at AFCON the reason we fell behind.

I think it was a major reason we fell behind and that we struggle in the league without him. We were flying early on in the season with him in the team so I don't think it's really him that's the problem. He links so much of our play and we often look disjointed without him.

Regardless of the above, I really don't get people rejoicing that one of our most influential players is out.

Anyway, we know he's out for Stoke so we'll see how that goes. I'd personally be more confident if he was playing.

 

[bellsouth]

You might want to cast your mind back to the last time Yaya was away at the African Nations and see how that went. We were joint top going into that period. We were pretty much out of the title race by the time he came back IIRC.

But we have Kevin now as well as Ferna in top form and Delph. So the loss of Yaya is mitigated.

 

[George Hannah]

Looks like Sergio's heel had a big bump then.

 

[PragueBlue]

Yeah, he was better back then. But how that's relevant to now I'm not sure.

As I said above, we were flying with him in the team at the start of the season. I suspect the problems we've had this season have been more due to the absence of Silva (who Toure has an excellent understanding with) rather than the presence of Toure.

 

[stablemcfc]

Heavy list of absentees once again.

Hart
Sagna Demichelis Otamendi Kolarov
Dinho Delph
KdB Silva Sterling
Bony

Bojan & Shaqiri are the types of players we've been experts at making look fantastic recently (Konoplyanka, Lamela, Firmino, Coutinho to name a few..), talented but totally inconsistent players that usually look very average we have a habit of making them shine. Hope we don't do so again.

 

[PragueBlue]

But we have Kevin now as well as Ferna in top form and Delph. So the loss of Yaya is mitigated.

You need someone to get the ball to these creative players though and Yaya is often that player. I wouldn't play him as far forward as he has been played recently though. He's better in a deeper role.

 

[Marvin]

Going to be a very hard slog in very difficult conditions which should suit Stoke more than us

Turns out that Tolmie was right about Aguero then. Hopefully he'll be back for Borussia MGBH

 

[George Hannah]

Heavy list of absentees once again.
Hart
Sagna Demichelis Otamendi Kolarov
Dinho Delph
KdB Silva Sterling
Bony

Bojan & Shaqiri are the types of players we've been experts at making look fantastic recently (Konoplyanka, Lamela, Firmino, Coutinho to name a few..), talented but totally inconsistent players that usually look very average we have a habit of making them shine. Hope we don't do so again.

we're struggling for sure with all those out as well