Man City V Barcelona Pre Match thread.

[daztrueblue91]

First of all, your line up consists of 12 players. Second of all, I don't understand why did you compare Silva, who is AM, to Suarez, who is CF.

While I can't argue about the presence of Silva, Toure and Zabaleta (Alves is still superior quality wise but hasn't been himself since like 2011) in your line up, I have serious doubts about what are Kompany, Mangala and Hart doing there.

While I can't deny Mangala and Kompany are great players, I personally rate Pique and Mascherano way higher. Mangala is overpriced and overrated as hell, as he keeps proving this season he's not even worth half the money you paid for him. Kompany is an error machine and you never know what you get with him. He's most of the time solid but I wouldn't say he's a safe bet in defence. Ticking time bomb while Pique is absolutely on fire this season and comitted roughly 1 mistake the past months. On the other hand, Mascherano's tackling is probably the best in the world and maybe he lacks height but I still would take him over Mangala or Kompany any day, any time.

Honestly I never kept an eye on Hart that much but I wouldn't say any of Claudio Bravo or the young Marc-Andre ter Stegen are much inferior.

At last, I'd like to compare Suarez with Aguero. With all due respect, Luis is quite obviously the more complete player in general. He contributes to the team way better and overall he's a much better team player. Aguero is dangerous on the counter but that's pretty much it. When facing a bus, he's competely hopeless.

Now, coming to the meritum of my thought, I'd like you to present the line up I would pick (can't argue about the goalkeepers because there's not much difference, I have to kick one player out as your line up had 12 lads):

Hart or Bravo
Zabaleta - Pique - Mascherano - Alba
Toure - Busquets - Silva
Messi - Suarez - Neymar

BTW, good luck tomorrow!

That is some of the biggest load of bollocks I've ever had the misfortune of reading.

Try watching Mangala play rather than listening to pundits or reading Neil Ashton's match reviews. It's no coincidence that our best spells this season have all been when he has played.

Kompany is coming back from an injury but to say he is a "ticking time bomb" is utter ridiculous. He is miles ahead of Masherano as a CB and there is a reason why Barca were sniffing around him a few seasons back, to replace Mascherano at CB. Any team in the world would want a CB of Vinny's quality. In fact he would walk into any starting 11 in the world.

Suarez is a greedy, racist c*** who is nowhere near Sergio's level. He might score 4 or 5 against Norwich but when he plays the big boys he goes missing. Kun regularly scores against the big teams and in the big games whereas Suarez is a vile flat track bully. Also, its not even worth discussing injury records because where Kun misses 10 games a season through injury, Suarez misses more through suspensions.

And you obviously don't watch City that much. 9 times out of 10 we play teams who park the bus and Sergio cannot be doing to badly considering the goals he has scored. Unless of course they were all on the counter attack.

Aguero is the best striker in the world for me but your post is just as bad as the one you quoted.
Suarez is clearly on the same level even if you rate Aguero better. He is a top 3 striker in the world.

Ibrahimovic, Messi, Ronaldo, Aguero, Benzema and arguably Costa are all better than Suarez IMO.

I have never understood the whole hype around him. He's a selfish, greedy cheat who looks amazing against Norwich and Fulham but does nothing apart from dive and moan against the big teams. Did he even score against a team from the top 5 last season?

 

[pudge]

Suarez is not "a top 3 striker in the world "

He's a flat track bully

Add one goal against United from the time those stats were taken.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

No doubt the barca team from a 2 or 3 seasons ago , was something to be feared , but the present barca team is too reliant on Messi , i have never rated Neymar , reminds me of a poor mans Robinho , too light weight and Suarez isnt anywhere near the level he was playing for the dippers last season .So although they still command respect , their recent eleven game winning streak was mostly against mid table la liga cannon fodder. Its about time our inferiority complex when playing the "elite" of europe , was well and truly put to bed , and a victory on tuesday would be a big step.

 

[ancoats]

this time its for real

right you media scum bags time to start backing Manchester city in Europe
and I hope tomorrow city will show the world that we mean business with the so called big boys and don't show any respect to barca on the field of play

its our time am sick of all this crap about the ground and the fans its not like united or Liverpool
bollocks from ITV panel of so called superstars. its Manchester city give us so respect please you are a british tv channel get behind us and stop picking hole's in the ground got empty seats crap

we must give them a right good over they are not the barca of old we can beat them and I feel its time to show up and yes this time its the real thing

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eNfk0H_LSM[/video]

 

[mac]

Re: this time its for real

You do know if we beat them it's because they are not as good as peps barca.

 

[mad zab]

We should certainly not play with any fear tomorrow, but at the same time we need to choose the right team to give us the best chance of winning.

With that in mind I would pick this team

Hart

Sagna Kompany Mangala Clichy

Ferny

Navas Silva Nasri Milner

Aguero

We need Silva and Nasri to get hold of the ball and put them on the back foot. Having Milner and Navas in the wide areas would hopefully ensure no gaps where left for their fullbacks.

We all know if we give Sergio the ball in the right attacking areas he can play havoc with their defence.

Equally we need to ensure we can match them for pace when they do attack, and that is why I would have Sagna and Mangala in for Pab and Demi.

I think there was periods in the second game last year that we outplayed them, but we lost it at home because we lacked that self belief we could actually beat them.

 

[ancoats]

Re: this time its for real

You do know if we beat them it's because they are not as good as peps barca.

when we beat them

time to stop the media crap about little old Manchester city empty seat and give 1 of the best teams in Europe and give them a right going over what a better way to do it on ITV with the united panel of so called superstars who none of them ever won the champions league

 

[ilovefotball]

No doubt the barca team from a 2 or 3 seasons ago , was something to be feared , but the present barca team is too reliant on Messi , i have never rated Neymar , reminds me of a poor mans Robinho , too light weight and Suarez isnt anywhere near the level he was playing for the dippers last season .So although they still command respect , their recent eleven game winning streak was mostly against mid table la liga cannon fodder. Its about time our inferiority complex when playing the "elite" of europe , was well and truly put to bed , and a victory on tuesday would be a big step.

Yeah right, 3 wins in a row against Atletico Madrid, and win against Athletic Bilboa at San Mames won't count? If anything, game against Malaga at saturday was unusal as every player looked disinterested/unprepared, may be their minds were already occupied by City and the game on Tuesday.

 

[3rdgenerationblue]

sat here in Tenerife for summer break ( not best timings I know) and just had to explain to Manuel the bar man and some retarded English ex pats that this is a different animal that barca are meeting tomorrow.
The team spirit looked exceptional on Saturday and YOUR PEOPLE EXPECT!
Come on City.
I'll be raising the roof.
Time to come of age.

 

[Aguero_Element]

sagna is not ready imo, i love zaba when he is on form. id have
zaba kompany mangala clichy
toure fernadinho
nasri/milner silva or Nasri silva milner
aguero dzeko dzeko/aguero




but for me pelligrini ALWAYS mixes it up, so we shall see