City v Liverpool (Home) Pre-Match Thread

City v Liverpool prediction

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Knowing Pep:

Ederson
Danilo Kompany Otamendi Mendy
Yaya Delph
Silva De Bruyne Silva
Aguero
 
Cannot wait for this game, seems like ages since Bournemouth because of that crappy international break.
 
Ederson
Walker Kompany Stones Mendy

YaYa

B Silva. DeBruyne D Silva. Sane

Kun
 
Neville Kneville said:
I wonder if Pep is going to acknowledge the fact that they potentially have the beating of us on the counter attack unless we take measures to prevent it, or just stick all our eggs in one attacking basket & hope we roll them over & get away with it ?

And if he does ignore their threat & we get tonked, even with our new fullbacks etc, will he adapt from then on, or just keep repeating the same, Pellegrini style ?

I'd like it to be possible we can overrun them playing Pep ball, that would be spectacular, but if he tries it & sees it go horribly wrong, baring in mind it's his 2nd season, I'd like to think he'd be willing to adapt.

I don't mind seeing him have a go, full on, at this stage, as long as he's willing to accept the lessons & adapt for similar opponents, if it fails.
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Without wanting to keep banging on about buying a suitable top class CB (but I'm going to), this is why I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to buy VVD. Pep ideally wants to stick all his eggs in one attacking basket as you say. In my view if we had managed to get VVD, Pep would have had a much better chance of being able to do that in games like this than by buying Sanchez IMO.
 
Lancet Fluke said:
Without wanting to keep banging on about buying a suitable top class CB (but I'm going to), this is why I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to buy VVD. Pep ideally wants to stick all his eggs in one attacking basket as you say. In my view if we had managed to get VVD, Pep would have had a much better chance of being able to do that in games like this than by buying Sanchez IMO.
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Couldn't agree more VVD would have made the biggest positive impact to our team than just about anyone but it wasn't to be this window. Let's hope we are wrong. Pep has his wing backs and it might take some pressure off our weak spot.

Great test of the system this game.
 
Lancet Fluke said:
Without wanting to keep banging on about buying a suitable top class CB (but I'm going to), this is why I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to buy VVD. Pep ideally wants to stick all his eggs in one attacking basket as you say. In my view if we had managed to get VVD, Pep would have had a much better chance of being able to do that in games like this than by buying Sanchez IMO.
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I was of the understanding that VVD only wants to go to Liverpool, and that Southampton in any case refuse to sell. So complaining we did not buy him seems not to make a lot of sense. This is the real world, not a computer game.
 
Really hope YaYa is not picked for this game. All I can remember when he plays against Liverpool is all the Liverpool players swarming around him and making him look like a carthorse.
Liverpool always seem to play well against us and don't think an early kick off suits us.
 
Jazzman said:
I was of the understanding that VVD only wants to go to Liverpool, and that Southampton in any case refuse to sell. So complaining we did not buy him seems not to make a lot of sense. This is the real world, not a computer game.
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Not sure the computer game dig is necessary. My point was that I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to try and get him, not I don't understand why we didn't ultimately end up with him. I know there could still have been reasons why a deal might not have got done even if we did really make a fist of trying to get him but we didn't even appear to be terribly interested once Southampton named their price. Not that I'm convinced at all that he would have refused us, particularly once Southampton made it more or less impossible for him to go to Liverpool but still it would have required Southampton being prepared to sell, I am aware of that.

Anyway, it is more of a general point than purely complaining that we didn't make a proper go of trying to buy VVD. IMO buying a quick strong CB who is more likely to be able to cope with the counter attack would actually allow us to be more attacking than buying more forwards. Do you have an opinion on that?
 
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Lancet Fluke said:
Not sure the computer game dig is necessary. My point was that I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to try and get him, not I don't understand why we didn't ultimately end up with him. I know there could still have been reasons why a deal might not have got done even if we did really make a fist of trying to get him but we didn't even appear to be terribly interested once Southampton named their price. Not that I'm convinced at all that he would have refused us, particularly once Southampton made it more or less impossible for him to go to Liverpool but still it would have required Southampton being prepared to sell, I am aware of that.

Anyway, it is more of a general point than purely complaining that we didn't make a proper go of trying to buy VVD. IMO buying a quick strong CB who is more likely to be able to cope with the counter attack would actually allow us to be more attacking than buying more forwards. Do you have an opinion on that?
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You are right, the dig was not necessary. Sorry about that. I had been reading the Pep Guardiola performance thread and gotten annoyed with all the back stabbing and Pep bashing going on there from the hysterical crew.
About your point I actually agree with you. I don't think Mangala is good enough, and I don't think he will ever be. Similarly I don't think Tosin is good enough. I don't know if he ever will be. In general I am mystified by City giving him a new contract and then how we use him, or rather not use him.
So I agree we need a new CB with the attributes you describe, because as soon as one of our 3 up to standard CB's are out we are in trouble. Especially if it is Kompany.
I personally think VVD is too expensive for his quality. Never mind the question mark about his quality coming back from a long, long injury. When was it he played for the last time? Can't remember.
 
Wrighty Wrexham said:
Really hope YaYa is not picked for this game. All I can remember when he plays against Liverpool is all the Liverpool players swarming around him and making him look like a carthorse.
Liverpool always seem to play well against us and don't think an early kick off suits us.
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The flip side is that at times Bournemouth made Fernandinho look very uncomfortable.
 
Very difficult game this one. I'm not sure (but happy to stand corrected) that we've ever rip-roared our way through a 12:30pm kick off post-nternational break. We'll have a decent stage in the game, but I reckon it will come a little too late to take the three points. 2 - 2 and the media in a frenzy as City 'slip 5 points behind The Champions Elect'.
 
Just met Gundogan in town.

He said he's 100% fit and ready and it's up to the boss.

I hope he plays. 2 Germans, 2 Brazilians, 2 Belgians, 2 Argentinians ,1English,1 french and a Spaniard.
 
I'd take Yaya and Dinho together for the first half to keep it solid and get in a rhythm before introducing David Silva. Let De Bruyne play behind the striker, with Jesus and Sane either side of Aguero as a front 3 to cause havoc.
 
barryo said:
Just met Gundogan in town.

He said he's 100% fit and ready and it's up to the boss.

I hope he plays. 2 Germans, 2 Brazilians, 2 Belgians, 2 Argentinians ,1English,1 french and a Spaniard.
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Was he carrying white plastic bags of shopping? I hope so :-)
 
I've not been a fan of the 3-5-2 particularly, but I think it might be the best system for this game. I think if we try to match their formation they'll win the physical battle in midfield, so it might make sense to have a numerical advantage in there.
 
Lancet Fluke said:
Without wanting to keep banging on about buying a suitable top class CB (but I'm going to), this is why I don't understand why we didn't go balls out to buy VVD. Pep ideally wants to stick all his eggs in one attacking basket as you say. In my view if we had managed to get VVD, Pep would have had a much better chance of being able to do that in games like this than by buying Sanchez IMO.
Click to expand...

Agree.

It would have made his job a lot easier.
 
Jazzman said:
I was of the understanding that VVD only wants to go to Liverpool, and that Southampton in any case refuse to sell. So complaining we did not buy him seems not to make a lot of sense. This is the real world, not a computer game.
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Well said.

Also City sound put potential players and usually end up bidding by ourselves. If he stated he wanted Liverpool and not us then we probably backed off in the same way United did with B.Silva, Munich did with KDB and everyone else did with Stones and Sterling.

The whole 'I don't know why we didn't try and buy X' is something seen often on Red cafe about Silva and Aguero and plenty of others. Just because a player doesn't go somewhere doesn't mean a club didn't try and to be honest, who knew how much work we'd put in with B.Silva? (No one). Just because it's not in the press doesn't mean we haven't been doing a ton of stuff behind closed doors.
 
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