Barcelona Vs City Pre Match Thread

[mancity1]

If we line up with two strikers and midfield two including Yaya, we may as well sack Pellegrini before the game even kicks off. Barca against a one man midfield would get embarrassing

The thing is a bet the players think the same thing when we play top teams and it effects them..

Why are we still going on about this rubbish.

Surely you can see that we've gone out at home in 2 cups to poor teams, and lost numerous games in the league to weak teams we should be beating easily.

We won trophies with this team playing attacking football so where's the logic In this argument?

Joe will have to play the game of his life for us to stay in the hunt.

If that happens who knows but we are well below what we were when we played them last time and they are playing probably nearly as good as Bayern are at present so its a case of all hands on deck see if we can avoid the Vanuatu cyclone and get a tail wind that gives us the 1 goal win with the right scoreline to carry on.

Its a one off as such and we need to score at least two goals which is a tall order given we need to keep them scoreless or down to one with a defensive mindset that has lost the plot this year on and off the field.


Even Wenger knows that if you are not switched on defensively you don't win games of football.

Somebody should remind MP of that from time to time.

Amazingly when we don't concede we win games of football.

 

[chris63]

Not confidant at all going into this match. You never no thou, sillier things have happened.

 

[M18CTID]

Can anyone explain why our 2 up front in the
4-4-2 formation does not work against a team who
Play 3 up front in a 4-3-3 formation other than we do not work hard
Enough when not in possession ??
This lark of we only have 2 midfielders v there 3.
If they have the ball we should have 2 banks of 4 with one of
the forwards falling back into midfield.
And when we are in possession surly they with 3 forwards are
Undermanned in midfield and defence.
Our problem is not 4-4-2 its the players laziness to work as a unit.
Put the intensity into our game and we will win.

I agree with you, but I'd be shocked the lads come to life all of a sudden and press like their lives depended on it. They couldn't do it against Burnley when we needed to win and nothing less. Against Barca...one can dream, but I'm keeping my money in my pocket this time.

You never know though. The team surprised us all in the last 2 group games. Also, the 2nd half against Barca the other week was a vast improvement on the first and when we pushed up and harried them we caused them problems and panic in their defence. Even during the car crash that was the first half you could see their defence wasn't all that. The trouble is, when playing Barca most teams don't get the chance to expose their defence because they're so good all over the rest of the pitch. Even if we get our tactics spot on, we could get undone by one piece of magic but we do have a glimmer of a chance if the players can eradicate the mistakes of the first leg and MP gets his tactics right.

 

[sh249]

Personally, I'd go with something like this:

----------------------Hart------------------------
Sagna--Kompany--Mangala--Kolarov
----------------------Yaya----------------------
----Fernandinho--------Milner-----------
Navas---------------------------Silva--------
--------------------Aguero---------------------

Irrespective of formations and team selections, though, we're going to have to work our balls off. If we do, we have a decent chance - we saw in the second half of the first leg that they don't like being pressed, and it would be very much 'typical City' to go there in our current form and put in a performance. If we're not prepared to work hard though, it could be a long, painful, even embarrassing night.

 

[tonea2003]

prepare for a chastening night

we have players blagging us all, others have thrown the towel in, they all should be embarrassed, the manager has no respect for the opposition in terms of his rigid 4-4-2 formation

these are just off the top of my head within a few seconds from fans and pundits alike

i'll be happy if we pass the ball forward once at this rate

 

[gomoich]

Why can't we do it? We have pulled out a few results before when all seems lost or we are big under dogs. Remember Blackburn away the year they won the league and we were fighting relegation or the Munich memorial match at OT and the Wayne Bridge game at Chelsea - to name just a few.

Yes Barcelona are so much better than most opposition we have ever faced but some of our players are up there with the best in the world.

Barcelona will have one eye on the Classico at the weekend. If our guys are up for the fight, really believe they can win and play like we know they can then why not?

But if we go 442 and play like we did against Burnley we are f#*@ed

 

[Brendan110_0]

----------Hart-------------
Sagna--Demichelis--Mangala--Clichy
Navas--KOMPANY--Fernandinho--Yaya--Silva
----------------Bony------------------------------

 

[Damocles]

----------Hart-------------
Sagna--Demichelis--Mangala--Clichy
Navas--KOMPANY--Fernandinho--Yaya--Silva
----------------Bony------------------------------

Kompany is only a midfielder on computer games

 

[Eccles Blue]

Come on City, you can do it, we can do it. The fans will be behind you, they will give you that boost that is needed.

City, the best team in the land in all the world.

 

[the plasterer]

the mother of all beatings is on the horizon, barca will be that far in front at half time, they will declare and make city play the whole of the second half against their B team, which they also go on to win by a cricket score, pellers will then say in his press conference that his team played well, had chances to score and this is important to take into the west brom game adding that his tactics of 4-4-2 worked well in the 15 minute interval when barca had no possession at all