Crystal Palace (Away) - Pre Match Thread

[Neville Kneville]

Definitely a match, like Leicester and Spurs in November you think there is the possibility of a slip up.

Still giving Sane a rest and hopefully Silva back in the fold should strengthen us significantly.

Its usually a tightly fought affair (well last season was) so would take a 1-0 and then use the upcoming weeks to rotate a little more and hopefully get Jesus and Aguero firing again.

Yes, Sane getting a day off is a very good thing.

My main question for the next period, is the obvious lack of match fitness of KDB & whether he can get back to full fitness whilst playing, or needs a break in order to do it. The football brain & passing is still there but he is finding the running about hard work & we are half a yard slower to the 2nd balls with him & Gundogan in there.

That, allied to Aguero missing almost every opportunity up front, is blunting our attacking threat somewhat & we will surely get found out if we continue to play at 60% in both areas.

 

[franksinatra]

Yes, Sane getting a day off is a very good thing.

My main question for the next period, is the obvious lack of match fitness of KDB & whether he can get back to full fitness whilst playing, or needs a break in order to do it. The football brain & passing is still there but he is finding the running about hard work & we are half a yard slower to the 2nd balls with him & Gundogan in there.

That, allied to Aguero missing almost every opportunity up front, is blunting our attacking threat somewhat & we will surely get found out if we continue to play at 60% in both areas.

There was a massive dip second half in KDBs performance and it was noticeable more spaced opened up centrally and we kept losing posession when a possible counter was possible. Hopefully its more due to the illness and as he naturally puts the weight back on he will stronger for it.

If not I would rest him for the Watford match and then bring him back for Burnley and Bristol in the cup which are huge games. As nice as the record in the league is were 9 games from a domestic treble. We need to really to focus heavily on the cups now and give them parity with league matches.

 

[Blue Llama]

Still giving Sane a rest

Not sure he needs any rest. Not seen him put a shift in for weeks. He is supposed to be the fastest player in the league but he regularly gives up on balls other City players would not give up on until they have crossed the line. If Alexis arrives Sane will be the one to end up second choice on the left and he only has himself to blame.

 

[franksinatra]

Not sure he needs any rest. Not seen him put a shift in for weeks. He is supposed to be the fastest player in the league but he regularly gives up on balls other City players would not give up on until they have crossed the line. If Alexis arrives Sane will be the one to end up second choice on the left and he only has himself to blame.

I thought he was pretty poor against Bournemouth and whether that was due to fatigue or loss of form a rest should hopefully do him some good, even if it only highlights he has to play well to keep his place.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Not sure he needs any rest. Not seen him put a shift in for weeks. He is supposed to be the fastest player in the league but he regularly gives up on balls other City players would not give up on until they have crossed the line. If Alexis arrives Sane will be the one to end up second choice on the left and he only has himself to blame.

The kid has already done more running at City than Ronaldo did in his whole career at Utd, & a slight drop in standard at the age of 21, isn't uncommon.

If he 'ends up' 2nd choice for any length of time, with only himself to blame, I'm sure he will be able to console himself with a regular spot playing for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Barca.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Ederson

Danilo
Otamendi
Mangala
Delph

Diniho
Kdb
Silva

Bernardo
Jesus
Sane

 

[Cityinmyheart]

--------------------Ederson---------------------

Danilo........Otamendi-----Mangala------Delph

----------------------Yaya---------------------------- (Fernan needs a breather, Yaya has to step up)

------------Gundo------------D. Silva---------------

B. Silva------------Jesus-------------------Sane.


Subs: Bravo, Walker, Tosin, , Fernan, KDB, Sterling, Aguero

Not an ideal time for this game but will go for a 1-2 win for us.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

I haven’t been keen on this fixture for a few weeks now. Palace looked decent at the etihad before we got the first goal which killed them, they’ve been on a good run lately too. Still think we’ll win, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we came away with a draw.

 

[Blue Llama]

The kid has already done more running at City than Ronaldo did in his whole career at Utd, & a slight drop in standard at the age of 21, isn't uncommon.

If he 'ends up' 2nd choice for any length of time, with only himself to blame, I'm sure he will be able to console himself with a regular spot playing for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Barca.

In his dreams perhaps. It's not a case of standard or quality its effort and he is not putting it in and comparing Ronaldo with Sane says everything about your post.

 

[Easy]

Ederson

Danilo
Otamendi
Mangala
Delph

Fernandinho
D.Silva
Gundogan

Sterling
Jesus
Sane

De Bruyne, Kun, Walker all need a rest. Danilo deserves a start in his preferred position. Hopefully Delph and Silva will be back as they are desperately needed.

Palace play a derby with Arsenal today which is an advantage for us. They also play Southampton right after our game who are winless in SEVEN. Surely they will rest an important player or two against us and will focus on the Soton match instead.

 

[Neville Kneville]

In his dreams perhaps. It's not a case of standard or quality its effort and he is not putting it in and comparing Ronaldo with Sane says everything about your post.

He puts in loads of effort.

More than Ronaldo ever did.

And he is at least as good as Ronaldo was at the same period in his career, a player being slagged off by Utd fans for being a lazy primadona & who was up against defenders of half the pace fitness and organisation, of today's players, many of whom would struggle to play in Championship teams in the modern era & 'tracking back' was for defensive midfielders.

He is currently playing at a level few Utd players ever reached.

And let's see if Real or Barca try to tempt him away in the coming seasons shall we ?

 

[lostgalaxy]

Nurse!
.

Ha... thanks for the slang, learnt a new word. But some of my ‘thickest’ predictions have come true, like Gundogan starting to play in place of Silva.

I think Toure and Gundogan would present them a different style of attacking. Now that they all withdrew into their shelves and Pep keeps complaining teams not having the guts to ‘play’, wouldn’t it be wise to try something else. We need to earn points while conserving energy for the many fronts.

 

[RACHACE]

He puts in loads of effort.

More than Ronaldo ever did.

And he is at least as good as Ronaldo was at the same period in his career, a player being slagged off by Utd fans for being a lazy primadona & who was up against defenders of half the pace fitness and organisation, of today's players, many of whom would struggle to play in Championship teams in the modern era & 'tracking back' was for defensive midfielders.

He is currently playing at a level few Utd players ever reached.

And let's see if Real or Barca try to tempt him away in the coming seasons shall we ?

I agree with your assessment of Sane Neville Kneville. Whether he goes onto the level that Ronaldo has I'm not sure but at his age he's certainly showing the signs that he could get close. He'll at the very least be as good as Gareth Bale in his prime. I fancy him to exceed what Gareth Bale has achieved though.

 

[Newtoncc]

I would play Bernadro & david Centrally give KDB a rest until Watford then similar in cup games.

Really would be good to see Bernardo/Silva/Gundogan playing together.

Play Fernando but make sure he gets a yellow fro Burnley game

 

[Neville Kneville]

I agree with your assessment of Sane Neville Kneville. Whether he goes onto the level that Ronaldo has I'm not sure but at his age he's certainly showing the signs that he could get close. He'll at the very least be as good as Gareth Bale in his prime. I fancy him to exceed what Gareth Bale has achieved though.

I think it's all upto what happens in the next couple of seasons.

Ronaldo suddenly started scoring goals which masked all his less acceptable traits, & never really looked back.

Sane imo has the ability to do similar, including the free kicks & even headers if he works on them, but Ronaldo has never had any responsibility for anything else in the game other than his own attacking, wheras Sane is being asked to do a lot more.

 

[domalino]

He puts in loads of effort.

More than Ronaldo ever did.

And he is at least as good as Ronaldo was at the same period in his career, a player being slagged off by Utd fans for being a lazy primadona & who was up against defenders of half the pace fitness and organisation, of today's players, many of whom would struggle to play in Championship teams in the modern era & 'tracking back' was for defensive midfielders.

He is currently playing at a level few Utd players ever reached.

And let's see if Real or Barca try to tempt him away in the coming seasons shall we ?

I agree with your assessment of Sane Neville Kneville. Whether he goes onto the level that Ronaldo has I'm not sure but at his age he's certainly showing the signs that he could get close. He'll at the very least be as good as Gareth Bale in his prime. I fancy him to exceed what Gareth Bale has achieved though.

The thing is - it's not that hard to be at the level Ronaldo was for the rags at Sané's age.

A lot of world class prospects are at a sinilar level to 21 year old ronaldo at thar age. Sané is already ahead of where Ronaldo was IMO, but Ronaldo made a massive leap at 23 years old that almost no other players have done, bigger even than the leap Sterling has taken this season which has been transformative.

He went from very promising, skilful but little end product to scoring a goal a game and completely running marches.

Sané has time to make that jump but it's going to be incredibly hard and he's got a lot of things to improve before it even seems really plausible he could do it.

 

[bulldogblue]

Think most of you are worrying unduly about this match. Got a feeling that we will up our game, take our chances and win by a 2/3 goal advantage.
Hopefully Silva and Sane will be back in the starting XI and Walker will have flushed the Xmas spirit out of his system.

 

[Pete Ren]

There was a massive dip second half in KDBs performance and it was noticeable more spaced opened up centrally and we kept losing posession when a possible counter was possible. Hopefully its more due to the illness and as he naturally puts the weight back on he will stronger for it.

If not I would rest him for the Watford match and then bring him back for Burnley and Bristol in the cup which are huge games. As nice as the record in the league is were 9 games from a domestic treble. We need to really to focus heavily on the cups now and give them parity with league matches.

KDB a massive dip in the second half?
What I have noticed is that he was decisive in a game once more and that he have could scored another goal. And if his teammates would be more clinical the game was already in the pocket by HT.
Are you not too harsh? City played breathtaking football (not always), are 15 points in front, is semi finalist for the league cup, still in the running for the FA cup and Champions league. What can a fan expect more from his club?

 

[chesterguy]

I think they may a very changed side against us

They are playing Arsenal at home tonight a "london" derby and a game they probably think they may win

They play us on Sunday and then on Tuesday are away at Southampton another game they probably think they can win so I wonder how they will treat our game

 

[leighton]

I think this game is ideal to play both Kun and Jesus. I am getting a bit worried about the lack of goals in Jesus more so than Kun. Kun was unlucky last night 2 hitting the post and a top class save from Elliott from the header he will score goals. Jesus just needs 1 to go in off his arse. This season he will learn a lot from playing over the winter time. Pep will keep him fresh and ready to go. I know he will come good and beleive in his talent but he aint got the goalscoring knack that Kun has so far.

Depending on injuries and the fitness of the team.
Ed
Walker , Mangala , Ottamendi , Danilo
Sane , Silva , Fernandhino , Sterling
Jesus , Kun

Give KDB the morning off if Silva is back.