How to play against Barcelona?

[CAPTAINKIPPAX]

Everyone is giving Barca far too much respect, at the Etihad with us fully fit and in the form we are in it should be them fearing us ! from midfield forward they are rightly acknowledged as one of the best sides in world football but defensively they are by no means the best and will never have an examination like we are going to give them.

 

[km09]

if we havnt made a statment already, Beating Barca would definatley put us on the world stage

 

[conormcfc]

In my opinion, we need to use our Sizemore, speed and aggression.

Give Ya Ya free role, licence to run at them. Set pieces will be crucial. I could see us scoring home a& away from corners.

Ideally soak up their pressure, defend deep and counter attack in numbers as we have done countless times.

Make them worry about us, they won't like our size and pace. They don't have anyone who could deal with Aguero for speed, Negredo will be too strong for Pique, Biscuts will not know what to do with Ya Ya.

High scoring tie, a red card for either side will end the tie, City would test apart a 10 men Batca, as Barca would tear apart a 10 man City.
Over two legs I can see Biscuts or Macherano seeing red, and us scoring at least twice set set pieces. I may severely have under estimated Barca, but I do rate us highly enough to win.

Pace & power is the key to beating them. See Bayern 7 Barca 0 last year.

Give Yaya a free role?

So 3v1 (Fernandinho) in the middle then?

Barca would snatch our hand off right now if we offered to set up like that.

I would agree with you that we need to take advantage of set pieces. They've struggled badly with defending corners.

 

[Azul Luna]

<a class="postlink" href="http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=1qDfThaxmTU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=1qDfThaxmTU</a>

Looks like a 4 2 3 1 then.

 

[Marvin]

Be cautious as there's a 2nd leg and Aguero running at their back 4 will hurt them......if he's 100%

I don't think the players we have available now are capable of beating them in an open game, so we must be cautious. With Aguero and Fernandinho due back for the 2nd leg, we can hurt them at the Nou Camp. Initial task is staying in the game in the 1st leg

 

[lancs blue]

Be cautious as there's a 2nd leg and Aguero running at their back 4 will hurt them......if he's 100%

I don't think the players we have available now are capable of beating them in an open game, so we must be cautious. With Aguero and Fernandinho due back for the 2nd leg, we can hurt them at the Nou Camp. Initial task is staying in the game in the 1st leg

Yep, 0-0 would be a great result on Tuesday, I could quite fancy us getting a score draw in the away leg.

 

[i8rags]

Play well is all I ask for.

 

[dan.j.mcfc]

Take Farbregas' advice and put plenty of men behind the ball in our half and try to counter on them when they lose possession.

If we were at full strength, I would say play our usual attacking game against whoever we face, but we're not, so I'm not.

 

[CAPTAINKIPPAX]

I don't think defensively Barca are especially impressive what they do better than any other club side in the world is start at a high tempo and keep it up for 90 mins no slacking,no peaks and troughs their workrate both on and off the ball is unmatched by anyone they pass teams off the park-just phenomenal conditioning just one lapse in concentration on our part and they will be in, through and scoring.Concentration and the ability to keep possession are vital but are not our strongest points so this is a tough one for us ........PELL COME OUT WITH THE WRONG TEAM AND TACTICS AT YOUR PERIL !

 

[Mr. Aguia]

Have to play on the counter although no Dinho and Aguero will hurt our effectiveness on the counter. THey are poor vs the counter, not unlike us. THey have no speed in the team except for players who aren't going to track back anyway like Neymar. Like us both their FB's get up the pitch leaving them with only 3 true defenders. So when they turn the ball over we need to break quickly before they can get people behind the ball. It's how Milan gave them trouble last year. Have to take our chances more than anything. Need to score every chance we get if we're to have any shot of getting threw because they certainly will score goals vs us.