City v Southampton pre match thread

[AliBobbyJ]

Time to get back to thumping teams and winning by four or five, though I'd be sorry to do that against West Ham and Zabaleta in particular. Maybe save the thumping for the week after.

 

[leth]

------------------Ederson-------------------
Danilo---Kompany---Otamendi---Delph
----------------Fernandinho----------------
----------Gundogan-----D.Silva-----------
Sterling----------Jesus---------------Sane

Bench: Bravo, Walker, Zinchenko, Mangala, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Aguero

Walker has played a lot recently and i feel we can switch in Danilo without disrupting things too much. A lot of Southampton's threat comes down that side with Boufal and Bertrand and Danilo might be better suited to being a bit more cautious and defensively minded in that role anyway.

Jesus comes in for Aguero as there's little to choose between them at the moment and continuing to rotate keeps both players fresh and making their case to start against Utd.

I'd start De Bruyne on the bench. It's pretty inevitable that both sides will tire in the second half, especially Saints given they've had to travel. Gundogan can help us keep the ball moving and do a lot of the hard running in the first hour. De Bruyne could be especially effective from the bench as the pace drops and defensive gaps start to appear.

If we do happen to find ourselves a couple of couples ahead in the game, i'd take the opportunity to have another look at Zinchenko in the back-up left-back role. Hopefully some more minutes will either help him grow into a viable option there or let us know for sure that we need to be looking to bring in a specialist left back in January and find Zinchenko a loan move. I personally thought he showed promise against Wolves. We won't get many better opportunities than the next two home games to find out a little more.

 

[German Blues]

Will be another tough match. Saints seem to be in a good form. But I think they won’t park the bus and give us a game. As I’m coming over for this one, I can’t wait for it.

 

[Bluep*ss]

Daft as it sounds I hope he gets booked
Am I making sense?

Hope he does'nt get a red - and miss 3 games

 

[Bluep*ss]

Sane has 3 according to https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/yellow_card

1. Nicolás Otamendi Manchester City 5 (served)
2. Fernandinho Manchester City 4
3. Vincent Kompany Manchester City 3
3. Leroy Sané Manchester City 3
5. Gabriel Jesus Manchester City 2
5. Benjamin Mendy Manchester City 2
5. David Silva Manchester City 2
8. Danilo Manchester City 1
8. Raheem Sterling Manchester City 1
8. Kyle Walker Manchester City 1

(F)Bookers - the lot of them - lol

 

[razman]

think sane has 4

 

[BLUEMATT23]

think sane has 4

Nope Leroy on 3.

 

[Bluep*ss]

There won't be a spot on earth that won't be showing that game, apart from poor fuckers who have paid BT or Sky or Now a king's ransom by way of subscription.

I pay £6-99p for a 24 hr. pass. on NOWTV box. Not bad to watch City.

 

[cadds92]

I would rotate one or two in the likes of KDB and Walker, but if we start changing 3 or more we risk having another Wolves/ Feyenoord performance.

It will be hard without him but I think KDB needs a week off.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I think we'll win this comfortably. It's the park-the-bus sides we've struggled most against. I was going to say since Pep got here, but thinking about it, it's been an issue ever since Mancini was here, after his honeymoon period at least. I remember how we were crying out for pace and width, to try to break teams down. Struggling to break down well organised defences has been a theme for the past 7 or 8 years.

Anyway, I digress. Southampton will try and play football, and we'll win comfortably as a result. (I hope!)