"City up there with Barca"?

A quick tempo counter attack style of play and use our pace and physicality and we'd give them a game. We wouldn't win, but we wouldn't roll over like most teams.
 
City's squad is the deepest (Quality wise) and strongest in world football.

No one can dispute that.

The only squad that comes close is Real Madrid's who have Sahin sitting on the bench with Kaka...
 
City is not Barca, and Barca is not City.

I am a Barcelona fan first and foremost, and I have to say Manchester City is slowly developing their own system, thanks to the tactical acumen of Mancini.

I know we play pretty football, but without a youth system dedicated to producing the best passers in the world, it is difficult to play "like Barcelona."

You can make another system that can be equally devastating without resorting to tiki-taka.

Now the question of can City beat Barca.... on a bad day, anyone can lose. We lost to Internazionale at the San Siro 3-1, remember. All volcano eruptions and player tiredness aside, no excuses and we lost that match. So sure, you can beat Barcelona, but so can a handful of other teams. The matter of doing it is a combination of luck, physique, determination, and whatever else you can think of, I suppose.

In regards to the team, Manchester City now have possibly the most balanced squad in Europe on all fronts. Barca still has the best midfield, but City now has I believe the strongest strikeforce, a midfield that can cause anyone trouble, and a defense that is definitely top-tier.
 
Pride said:
City is not Barca, and Barca is not City.



I know we play pretty football, but without a youth system dedicated to producing the best passers in the world, it is difficult to play "like Barcelona."
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very true.
 
English teams should really focus on the finer technical aspects of the game, especially during youth development. Someone like Gareth Bale - for all of his sheer physicality, acceleration & pace... would not cut in in a team like Real Madrid or Barcelona - his technique, control, and passing are simply not good enough. I love Bale as a player, my favorite "British" (yes I know he's Welsh, well part of Great Britain right?) player right now.

I feel like Bale's talents are being wasted playing as a wide midfielder. It might be too late to adapt his game, but imagine if he was brought up as an inside forward attacking down the right flank, cutting in (e.g. Cristiano Ronaldo).
 
So in effect you are wanting to convert a quality attacking left fullback into an inside right forward.
 
Usually have no time for Twitcher - but this time think he might have a point. If you compare the two "strongest" elevens "man for man" I don't think there is a lot between them. Maybe our back 4 is not quite up there with theirs but we have a lot of squad depth which is always handy over a full season.

Let's hope we don't have to compete with Barca until the CL final. It would be a great pity if one of us has to exit the competition and spoil what could be a wonderful final. We would give them a much more competitive game than the Scum did last year, that's for sure. And we wouldn't have the advantage of playing at home - at least where the supporters are concerned!
 
bluealf said:
So in effect you are wanting to convert a quality attacking left fullback into an inside right forward.
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He isn't an attacking left back though is he. He has played left wing for 14 months.
 
Barca lacked depth in their squad previous season but not this season. If everyone is fit and playing, we have this players sitting on the bench:

Fabregas
Sanchez
Mascherano
Keita
Affellay
Adriano

Tbh, i think we have a very balanced squad this year. Last season, we would have struggled without Messi, but this year we have cover for him in Sanchez playing their or moving Villa to middle and play Sanchez in his position. The new signings ensure us to have cover in every position without losing too much quality wise.

Fabregas( midfielder who can score) and Sanchez will be very important off the bench against teams that park the bus.

For me, Barca is still the team to beat this season closely followed by Real Madrid and i will have Manchester city as the 3rd best team.
 
ColinBellsjockstrap said:
Let's not get carried away.

So far we have beat Swansea, Notlob and a poor Spurs side, and got beat by the rags consisting of a team of kids.

FACT.

Things are looking good though.....
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You mean the same rag team full of kids that mullard Arsenal 8-2.

Personally I didn't think we were fully match fit in the charity shield. I still don't think we're fully match fit yet and I honestly think we've got a couple more gears to go up yet. I'm not saying we're a Barca but fuck me this team is bleeding good and I can see us only getting better as the season goes on.
 
I think this is a classic case of British overhyping. Yes, City are looking great, and at their best could do Barca over in a one-off game. Could we do it consistently? Not yet. Priority this year must be the league and beating the rags to the title.

On a side-note, given the big results yesterday (including Real Madrid's), the gulf in class between the top European sides and the rest of their respective leagues is growing so great that a Euro-league has to come about sooner or later, doesn't it?
 
SambaStyle said:
No

But 2nd or 3rd best team in the world right now
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...ridiculous! Based on what exactly?

City have been superb this eason, but it's only 3 games. I think we need to achieve a little more than that and an FA Cup win before we can claim to be up there with the best in the world!
 
ilovefotball said:
Barca lacked depth in their squad previous season but not this season. If everyone is fit and playing, we have this players sitting on the bench:

Fabregas
Sanchez
Mascherano
Keita
Affellay
Adriano

Tbh, i think we have a very balanced squad this year. Last season, we would have struggled without Messi, but this year we have cover for him in Sanchez playing their or moving Villa to middle and play Sanchez in his position. The new signings ensure us to have cover in every position without losing too much quality wise.

Fabregas( midfielder who can score) and Sanchez will be very important off the bench against teams that park the bus.

For me, Barca is still the team to beat this season closely followed by Real Madrid and i will have Manchester city as the 3rd best team.
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100% agree
 
Ahh the good old post hammering over-reaction :p

In a one off or two leg game, there may not be many if any other teams better equipped to deal with them than us (Especially with Aguero). But they go out against any team in the world and usually dominate them start to finish. We are so far off this. We're not even on par with the rags at doing this yet.

Let's have the new transfer glow subside and get into the real long haul of the season, then we'll see what we're really made of. If we're still pulling out results like this consistently at Christmas we can start to get very excited.
 
If Arsenal managed to win against them in first leg against them last season, I don't see why we can't do it.

I also think we'll have a better idea of how good we really are when we play United in October.
 
paul.manc said:
If Arsenal managed to win against them in first leg against them last season, I don't see why we can't do it.

I also think we'll have a better idea of how good we really are when we play United in October.
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Traditionally, Barcelona have always performed like shit in away games in the Champions League.

Whether it's against Arsenal, or fucking Shaktar, we've always played like shit away half of the time, LOL.

This is something I've come to expect and something I view as normal, as long as we crush them at the Camp Nou I am happy.
 
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