Man City V Barcelona Pre Match thread.

[aguero93:20]

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.

Bilbao are shite. I'd be worried about my teams professionalism if we'd put on a show like you lot did on Saturday.

 

[mad zab]

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

Yaya is suspended, and we won't play two strikers, as we wouldn't get hold of the ball enough.

 

[ilovefotball]

Barcelona supporter here.

This Barca team is different from the Barca of last year. The play is more vertical and transition from defence to attack is very fast. Even though Barca still has lots of possession, slow build-up possesion football is almost non-existent. The midfielders can't hold the ball as well as they used to and the creativity is mostly provided by Messi.

Best way to beat this Barca team is to absorb pressure and hit on counter. The midfield is more stretched now than ever and the 3 midfielders don't play as compact and as closer as they used to. This leaves huge gap in midfield when Barca looses possesion in opponent half. Combine this with slow midfielders we have, more vertical with risky passes and front 3 who don't track back to stop counters, opponets can find themselves countering against 4 or even 3 Barcelona players.

However, if City goes to play their normal attacking game. Barca will kill them in counters and will score at least one more goal than City. So, I hope what Pellegrini is saying is true and City comes guns blazing.

 

[SWP's back]

Okay, so what's your point. We are going into a game where our team sheet looks very identical to last season's except in this case we will replace Yaya with Fernando. Nasri will start but will not be able to provide the speed or width that we need on the left side. Jesus will provide the width and pace we require to win this game but will not be able to find a single player in the box because Aguero is too short to beat pique in the air. Please be objective in your analysis. thanks

Last year Aguero missed the first leg and was patently unfit for the second. Nasri and Fernandinho were both literally just back after injury (Nasri's a very serious one). Clichy is playing 3x as well as he did last year (we played Kolarov last year). Hart is having a significantly better season. And MDM is much more settled in our team. And we have Bony as an option.

I'm not asking you to be a City fan (you clearly are not). But if you're going to come trolling on our forum, expect to be taken apart if you post factless cr@p.

Look, I am a city fan through and through. Factless crap, stop the stupidity all around. I will await my apology after my prediction comes through. I am guessing your excuse will be that Nasri and Aguero just returned from an injury 3 weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, we have a good squad but not a great squad to play against this bunch.

Like fuck you are.

 

[richards30]

Hart
Zab
Vinny
Mangala
Clichy
fernando
Fernandihno
Milner
Nasri
Silva
Aguero

 

[papillon]

Tomorrow night will be the night when we as a club come of age in Europe. We all know too well that in previous years we have not performed to the level we all know we can and that is both on and off the pitch. I've got a funny feeling that tomorrow will be different and will be the start of something special and a new mentality when facing Europe's best.

 

[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.

Bilbao are shite. I'd be worried about my teams professionalism if we'd put on a show like you lot did on Saturday.

Bilbao at home ground is anything but shite.

I am not worried by my team's professionalism at all because it was an easy game at home right before the big encounter in CL. Sometimes things like this happen and it often makes the players more cautious and fired up for the next match.

 

[aguero93:20]

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.

Bilbao are shite. I'd be worried about my teams professionalism if we'd put on a show like you lot did on Saturday.

Bilbao at home ground is anything but shite.

I am not worried by my team's professionalism at all because it was an easy game at home right before the big encounter in CL. Sometimes things like this happen and it often makes the players more cautious and fired up for the next match.

You should be worried about their professionalism and their mentality, it's something you never would have seen from the great, dominant Barca teams, if your team are behaving like that you're as far away from your peak years as you've ever been since.

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

Spot the good news.

Jovetic is fit?

 

[kaz7]

Spot the good news.

Jovetic is fit?

Poor jojo,i feel sorry for him being left out even though i agree with it