Mancini: Fight Fire With Fire!

[whydelilah]

If you can match us for work-rate, commitment, passion and steel you will win the match. I have no doubt about that.

That's what I've been saying all along.

Ok, fair enough.

I question whether you can match us in those areas though.

Based purely on our last 2 matches.

 

[GStar]

We aren't favourites to win the physical battle though, imo.

SWP/Johnson/Ireland etc i think they're entire team is over 6 foot. They are a more physical team than us, if we try and beat them at thier own game, they're favourites to win the physical battle.

Even Barry hasn't been involved much for months, De Jong is physical but if the ball's 8 foot in the air, it's going to bypass most of our palyers. Ade isn't going to go round bruising defenders, whilst Bridge and Zab are good going forward but wont bring much to an aireal, physical battle.

We hammered Stoke at home last season by playing quick tempoed football, passing through thier team, getting it wide giving it to players with agility to pass thier big units... Sturrige shone and Robbie got a hattrick. We played our game kept it on the floro at a high tempo, the bigger weaknesses of Stoke and we made it look easy.

 

[Esteban de la Sexface]

That's what I've been saying all along.

Ok, fair enough.

I question whether you can match us in those areas though.

Based purely on our last 2 matches.

We're going to snap out of our shite spell at some stage and someone is going to be on the end of a hell of a beating. I don't think it will happen against you, but I can't see us losing either. I think we will come out the other side of a tough game winning one or two nil.

 

[Owain]

We aren't favourites to win the physical battle though, imo.

SWP/Johnson/Ireland etc i think they're entire team is over 6 foot. They are a more physical team than us, if we try and beat them at thier own game, they're favourites to win the physical battle.

Even Barry hasn't been involved much for months, De Jong is physical but if the ball's 8 foot in the air, it's going to bypass most of our palyers. Ade isn't going to go round bruising defenders, whilst Bridge and Zab are good going forward but wont bring much to an aireal, physical battle.

We hammered Stoke at home last season by playing quick tempoed football, passing through thier team, getting it wide giving it to players with agility to pass thier big units... Sturrige shone and Robbie got a hattrick. We played our game kept it on the floro at a high tempo, the bigger weaknesses of Stoke and we made it look easy.

This. We need to be as wide as possible, even on their strawberry bootlace of a pitch. There's no point lumping it, because we've not got height throughout the side. It's definitely about winning the second balls though, and getting it down quickly. You need your touch to be immaculate against the Stokies.

I'm confident that if we get it down and play, we'll beat them.

 

[Esteban de la Sexface]

We aren't favourites to win the physical battle though, imo.

SWP/Johnson/Ireland etc i think they're entire team is over 6 foot. They are a more physical team than us, if we try and beat them at thier own game, they're favourites to win the physical battle.

Even Barry hasn't been involved much for months, De Jong is physical but if the ball's 8 foot in the air, it's going to bypass most of our palyers. Ade isn't going to go round bruising defenders, whilst Bridge and Zab are good going forward but wont bring much to an aireal, physical battle.

We hammered Stoke at home last season by playing quick tempoed football, passing through thier team, getting it wide giving it to players with agility to pass thier big units... Sturrige shone and Robbie got a hattrick. We played our game kept it on the floro at a high tempo, the bigger weaknesses of Stoke and we made it look easy.

They have a tight pitch to prevent teams from doing that to them, and to accentuate the big eared ones throw ins. johnno is cup tied for this one, unfortunately. I think we'll see the 3 DM's again, barry nige and possibly Zabs or Komps in the middle.

we need to play Bellamy and try and get in behind them through the channels, their full backs are weak. Not physically of course. I don't think you'd make one decent full back out of what they have

 

[whydelilah]

In regards to “mentality”, Barry said something along the lines of “there was a lot at stake” as reasoning why the match between you and Liverpool was very flat, without many chances etc.

I don’t know about you, but as a fan I’d be expecting a lot more from my team. He’s basically saying “there was too much at stake, we were scared to lose the match or go for it”.

I know that’s not what he said but that’s how it comes across. There are 4 teams vying for that 4th spot and no one has stepped forward yet as the most likely to go for it and grasp it.

At home against Liverpool was a big chance for you to send out a message of intent to the rest and a chance to put a decent cushion between you both. As it turned out, you (or Liverpool) never really went for it and if I was a fan id be really disappointed with that.

Like I say, not trying to wind you lot up, just giving a viewpoint from the outside looking in.

 

[Owain]

In regards to “mentality”, Barry said something along the lines of “there was a lot at stake” as reasoning why the match between you and Liverpool was very flat, without many chances etc.

I don’t know about you, but as a fan I’d be expecting a lot more from my team. He’s basically saying “there was too much at stake, we were scared to lose the match or go for it”.

I know that’s not what he said but that’s how it comes across. There are 4 teams vying for that 4th spot and no one has stepped forward yet as the most likely to go for it and grasp it.

At home against Liverpool was a big chance for you to send out a message of intent to the rest and a chance to put a decent cushion between you both. As it turned out, you (or Liverpool) never really went for it and if I was a fan id be really disappointed with that.

Like I say, not trying to wind you lot up, just giving a viewpoint from the outside looking in.

Well it certainly appeared that way on the park. In my opinion, we wanted to win the game more, but were far too tentative. At the moment that's the difference between us and the likes of the Rags and Chelsea. We've got to be a lot more fearless. Who dares wins. Let's hope we're more ruthless tomorrow night.

 

[GStar]

In regards to “mentality”, Barry said something along the lines of “there was a lot at stake” as reasoning why the match between you and Liverpool was very flat, without many chances etc.

I don’t know about you, but as a fan I’d be expecting a lot more from my team. He’s basically saying “there was too much at stake, we were scared to lose the match or go for it”.

I know that’s not what he said but that’s how it comes across. There are 4 teams vying for that 4th spot and no one has stepped forward yet as the most likely to go for it and grasp it.

At home against Liverpool was a big chance for you to send out a message of intent to the rest and a chance to put a decent cushion between you both. As it turned out, you (or Liverpool) never really went for it and if I was a fan id be really disappointed with that.

Like I say, not trying to wind you lot up, just giving a viewpoint from the outside looking in.

Not really got anything to do with "Mancini fighting fire with fire" either. Don't believe what the 'pundits' said about the game, we weren't set up to continually attack Liverpool, it was infact a good game of tactical football, aome will call it boring but i'd wager they didn't understand what was going on... just because the ball wasn't hoofed blindly forward every time doesn't make a game dull.

We've beaten Chelsea and Arsenal at home, drawn twice with Liverpool and lost at utd away, thats a decent amount of points already from the top four, so it'll come down to how we do against the rest of the league it we get 4th, not if we beat Chelsea at the weekend (although it would greatly help)

 

[ellmo]

I undertstand that we (stoke) don't play great football at times and have some poor players amongst our ranks who are simply there to stop the opposition playing but i don't care. We can play good football too, which people often ignore and just focus on the 'long ball' label. I am proud of what we have achieved the last few seasons and although i envy the money you have at your disposal i'm quite content with the way we play until the day an arab comes in and gives us an unlimited pot of gold.

 

[SWP's back]

That's what I've been saying all along.

Ok, fair enough.

I question whether you can match us in those areas though.

Based purely on our last 2 matches.

What about the game before those two?

Ding a ding ding ding...