City v Liverpool (Home) Pre-Match Thread

[Stevieatlasblue]

Doom and gloom tells me we're going to get beat especially with kompany out..hope I'm wrong.

 

[Roachy]

It's also nonsense, Pep generally plays possession football but at home to Barca last season we played counter attacking football.

So far under Pep we have played 4-3-3, 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 so we don't play one way.

The biggest reason we have struggled in the big matches (Spurs away apart) is our utter wastefulness in front of goal, Chelsea at home, Liverpool at home, Spurs at home, Everton at home all defined by missed chances by us. This season already we have missed 6 big chances.

Guardiola believes the best way to beat most teams is to ensure they don't have the ball. We are inot there yet but what is letting us down time and again is our finishing (Jesus missed a few against Brighton and Bournemouth, Aguero missed chances against Brighton, Silva and Sterling missed sitters against Everton.

We will no doubt get chances on Saturday but so will Liverpool as they attack at pace and in numbers. The winning side will be the one who takes their chances.

Agree with most of that but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Our defence has been sub standard now for 3 seasons. Some of the defending in the big games last season was appalling, and is equally the reason for not winning those games. I still shake my head in disbelief at Costa brushing past Otamendi at the Etihad last season. The fullbacks should make a massive difference now though. We are not going to win every game by 3 or 4 goals. Our defence must improve just as much as the attackers if we are to be successful this season, hopefully starting tomorrow.

 

[argyle]

...and the refusal/failure to get another Centre Back could come back to haunt us.

 

[Wrighty Wrexham]

Oh if only we had signed Jonny Fucking Evans

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Agree with most of that but it doesn't paint the whole picture. Our defence has been sub standard now for 3 seasons. Some of the defending in the big games last season was appalling, and is equally the reason for not winning those games. I still shake my head in disbelief at Costa brushing past Otamendi at the Etihad last season. The fullbacks should make a massive difference now though. We are not going to win every game by 3 or 4 goals. Our defence must improve just as much as the attackers if we are to be successful this season, hopefully starting tomorrow.

Good post. Does anyone realistically think we will keep a clean sheet tomorrow? Would be a lot easier if we only needed to score one goal tomorrow to win. As it is we will almost certainly need at least two and quite possibly three or four. Too often we concede cheap goals but all lots of people want to talk about afterwards is the missed chances.

 

[Marvin]

Well the journalists don't rate Guardiola. Could you possibly be more insulting?

This is from the Guardian's Premiership preview https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...league-10-things-to-look-out-for-this-weekend

5) Guardiola’s ad hoc selection faces stiff Liverpool test
Manchester City and Liverpool have plenty in common: they are fast, attacking, aggressive teams, undermined by inexcusably dodgy defences. But there is one major difference between them: everyone knows exactly how Liverpool will play, whereas no one has any clue how Manchester City play – including the players, by the look of things.

Partly, this is because Pep Guardiola is trying to hide the aforementioned dodgy defence, partly this is because he has more attackers than attacking positions, and partly this is because he is an obsessive perfectionist. So he is still trying to deduce whether he should use two wingers if that limits him to only one striker; whether David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne can fit into the same team; and how to get 17 full-backs and 24 midfielders into 11 starting spots. Options are useful, but they can also confuse things.

Whoever Guardiola picks on Saturday will not be granted the luxury of easing themselves into the game; they will be put under pressure from the start, particularly in the space between full-backs and centre-backs. Should City survive that opening period, they should have far too much midfield class for Liverpool, but there is no guarantee that another ad hoc selection will be cohesive enough from the off.

 

[fatbloke]

Kompany being out is a major blow, I think we needed to play 5-4-1/3-6-1 (with a midfield diamond) to be able to dominate possession in central midfield but I don't see how we can do that now.

We need pace at the back to deal with Mane and Salah so do we bring back Mangala for this one and go 4-3-3, oh fuck knows. Whatever we do it'll be a huge gamble without Kompany.

Ederson
Walker - Stones - Mangala
Danilo and Mendy (wing backs)
Dinho
De Bruyne - Silva - B.Silva
Jesus

If we need to change it tactically we still have Sane and Aguero attacking wise and Otamendi to come on as our main centre back when Walker, Stones and Mangala all get sent off for jogging on the spot in the warm up.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Well the journalists don't rate Guardiola. Could you possibly be more insulting?

This is from the Guardian's Premiership preview https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...league-10-things-to-look-out-for-this-weekend

5) Guardiola’s ad hoc selection faces stiff Liverpool test
Manchester City and Liverpool have plenty in common: they are fast, attacking, aggressive teams, undermined by inexcusably dodgy defences. But there is one major difference between them: everyone knows exactly how Liverpool will play, whereas no one has any clue how Manchester City play – including the players, by the look of things.

Partly, this is because Pep Guardiola is trying to hide the aforementioned dodgy defence, partly this is because he has more attackers than attacking positions, and partly this is because he is an obsessive perfectionist. So he is still trying to deduce whether he should use two wingers if that limits him to only one striker; whether David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne can fit into the same team; and how to get 17 full-backs and 24 midfielders into 11 starting spots. Options are useful, but they can also confuse things.

Whoever Guardiola picks on Saturday will not be granted the luxury of easing themselves into the game; they will be put under pressure from the start, particularly in the space between full-backs and centre-backs. Should City survive that opening period, they should have far too much midfield class for Liverpool, but there is no guarantee that another ad hoc selection will be cohesive enough from the off.

There's probably the odd truth in there but so much of that is idiotic bullshit that it's difficult to take any of it seriously.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Well the journalists don't rate Guardiola. Could you possibly be more insulting?

This is from the Guardian's Premiership preview https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...league-10-things-to-look-out-for-this-weekend

5) Guardiola’s ad hoc selection faces stiff Liverpool test
Manchester City and Liverpool have plenty in common: they are fast, attacking, aggressive teams, undermined by inexcusably dodgy defences. But there is one major difference between them: everyone knows exactly how Liverpool will play, whereas no one has any clue how Manchester City play – including the players, by the look of things.

Partly, this is because Pep Guardiola is trying to hide the aforementioned dodgy defence, partly this is because he has more attackers than attacking positions, and partly this is because he is an obsessive perfectionist. So he is still trying to deduce whether he should use two wingers if that limits him to only one striker; whether David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne can fit into the same team; and how to get 17 full-backs and 24 midfielders into 11 starting spots. Options are useful, but they can also confuse things.

Whoever Guardiola picks on Saturday will not be granted the luxury of easing themselves into the game; they will be put under pressure from the start, particularly in the space between full-backs and centre-backs. Should City survive that opening period, they should have far too much midfield class for Liverpool, but there is no guarantee that another ad hoc selection will be cohesive enough from the off.

Well, I've been watching him for a season and a bit and I've got absolutely no idea what formation we will play tomorrow, nor who will be in the team, so I don't think, as things currently stand, it's hugely wide of the mark.

 

[barryo]

Danny higginbottoms in depth analysis concludes that Liverpool wingers are quicker than City's defenders.
Not sure Walker and Mendy would agree there Danny son.