Man City V Barcelona Pre Match thread.

[Deleted member 58678]

Obviously we need to score tonight, but in terms of confidence it's very important to know that the team can stick a few away.
Barca will then be very guarded for the 2nd leg. Plus we need a red card in our favour this time around.
City 3 - 1 Barcelona

We don't particularly need to score. A 0-0 draw is a good result at home in the first leg.

 

[kenzie115]

Barca have just come off a poor result at home and are not the side they were even at this time last year.

Hadn't they won their previous 13 though?

 

[Bluemanc100]

Arsenal fan here. New to the forum. I just wanted to wish you guys a really good game against Barcelona, hopefully Nasri plays as I'm a big fan of him.

Wow......... don't say that too loudly at the Emirates, nice to see that at least one Gooner can get beyond the usual vitriol re Nasri!!

Welcome to the forum also!!

 

[aguero93:20]

Arsenal fan here. New to the forum. I just wanted to wish you guys a really good game against Barcelona, hopefully Nasri plays as I'm a big fan of him.

Boooooooooooooooooooooo!

Only joking, best of luck in the FA cup against the scum. You lot should win tomorrow fairly comfortably so I won't wish you luck for that.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Not necessarily my choice but this is what i think Pellegrini will go with tonight.

Hart

Sagna Komapny demi Clichy

Fernando

Fernandinho Milner

Nasri Silva

Kun

Yaya is a huge blow for us, we're going to struggle to maintain any meaningful possession tonight, we'll have to be clinical with the few opportunites we do get. I'd suggest set pieces could be key but well we all know that's not going to happen. I'd bite your hand off if we was offered a draw right now, even a score draw is positive. With a fit squad and Yaya back i'd fancy our chances of sneaking a win at the camp nou

 

[willipp]

Just about to board a flight to Poland so going to miss the first half, gutted. Told myself so many times that I don't enjoy the CL, but games like tonight just capture us all. Enjoy it blues, it could be a special night tonight.

 

[DaveedoSilva]

Could be a long evening tonight for Samir! I hope he works hard and tracks there full back easy said then done though. Have a sneaky feeling pellers may go with navas due to his General work rate.. Hope he plays samir though he's been awesome recently and we will need his ability with ball. Come on city!!


Hart
Zaba vinnie Mangala Clichy
Fernandinho Fernando
Nasri Silva Milner
Aguero

 

[br88]

I hope tonight the players have the right mentality that they belong in this competition as equals and are not afraid or overwhelmed like previous encounters.
Same mentality as we had when we beat Bayern then we should do well against them in both legs.

No more little kids with stars in their eyes anymore. Time to show up and be accounted for.

Good post.....and I think your last sentence applies to us fans as well....the team really needs our support tonight.

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

I'm getting really excited now, I just hope the boys are as up for it as I am.

They're a pretty decent team, but, if we're focused for 90 minutes and every man does his job as well as we know they can, I honestly think we can come out of this with a very favorable result. Let them have the ball at the back, but we've got to hit them hard and fast as soon as their midfield look to play it forward. We've got to hassle them, show them no respect, and don't let them have any time in the middle of the park, if we do I think we win the midfield battle and cut off their supply to their front three and nullify their threat. It certainly won't be easy, but if we're switched on and we concentrate for the majority of the match we CAN stop them scoring, then all we need to do is thread a few decent balls through to Aguero who I'm confident will be able to bag us a winner.

Come on you blue boys!

 

[Dax777]

I think this slightly overrates us. Based on this season, I'd say
Hart = Bravo (toss up)
Zaba = Alves (toss up) both have been mostly average with one or 2 good games and a lot of shit games.
Clichy over Alba: Clichy is actually clearly better than Alba.
Pique over Kompany. This is not even close.
Mathieu over MDM or Mangala. This is slightly closer. As none of the 3 have consistently played, but Mathieu shades it on superior performance overal
Silva over Iniesta: this too isn't close. Even though like Alba, Iniesta often gets overrated. Has been good but not stellar.
Yaya over Rakitic: Yaya is by far a better footballer, but this is quite close on this seasons performance.
Busquest over the Ferns: not close at all.
Neymar over Nasri: not close at all
Messi over Dzeko/Milner/Navas: this is a runaway. WC to average.
Aguero over Suarez: Aguero wins by a bit. Aguero is by far the better striker this season, however Suarez team play makes this closer than the stats show.

Even if you give all the ties to City I.e Hart, Zaba, and sure City will have more players in a mixed squad. But the reality is this, in every position in which City is better, with the exception of Silva over Iniesta,the City player is only slightly better. While in perhaps every position Barca is better, there is a huge gulf in difference, except for Mathieu over Demi/Mangala.

Thus, having more players in the joint 11 is a bit of a false sense of comfort. Their team is comfortably better than ours. So are Bayern, and Real Madrid.

We can beat Barca, just like inter did them a few years back, and Malaga this weekend. But let's not confuse that for us having a better squad. We don't.
For example, just coz Arsenal came here and beat us doesn't mean I think they have a better squad. It just means they beat us. Similarly when we beat Barca tmrw, I wouldn't fool myself into thinking we have a better Squad, just that we beat them.

Alba's better than Clichy, not disrespecting Clichy but ask any non City fan who they would rather have and 95% would say Alba.

I'm assuming you mean Kompany over Pique, this is not even close. As no sane person would choose Pique over Kompany, I know you have this fascination with having 11 technically brilliant players on the pitch at one time but Kompany is head and shoulders better than Pique, Pique's Barcelona's weak link.

I based my conclusions on THIS season's performances. Whether Alba or Kompany are deemed better players based on history was irrelevant to my analysis. Based on this seasons performances, Pique has been close to WC and Kompany below average at best. On this seasons performance, Pique has been head and shoulders above Kompany. And no, he has not been a weak link at all. He has been solid mostly and sometimes exceptional. I can't point to any game this season in which I thought Kompany was exceptional, and very few in which I thought he was solid. So how can I rate him ahead of Pique on THIS current season? That will simply be bluenitis.

As for Alba, yes he is a superior technical player, but Clichy has been a far superior performer. By the way, picking Clichy over Alba contradicts your claim that I am simply picking the more technical players. I'm not. Clichy has simply been a better left back over the season.

So no. I did not mistype either claim, those are my conclusions from watching both teams consistently this season.