Merson writes.....

[Damocles]

Actually, the people who do know what they are talking about in football (i.e. not people like Merson or other pundits who try to simplify the game down to a box of overused cliches with no bearing in reality) are mainly saying that Mancini should play on the break, because, and I know this is hard for some to admit, we're going to the home of one of the greatest teams in the world who have just gone 29 games unbeaten and whose major strength FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS has been their ability to intercept a football and punish sloppy or meaningless passes.

People just seem to actually forget who United are most of of the time. Do yourself a favour and replace the words "Manchester United" with "Bayern Munich" or "Inter Milan" and then tell me why we should go there all guns blazing.

I agree (to an extent) with your sentiment, but playing on the break doesn't suit us, we have no pace whatsoever. Our game is primarily about keeping possession with patient, and intricate build-up play. How can we translate that into effective counter-attacking football?

And with Johnson out we're left with few alternatives should we need to switch it up and be a little more direct, I'm clinging onto the hope that Balotelli could make a late appearance but it's unlikely.

I'd take a point tomorrow, but we mustn't show them too much respect. If we go there with the belief we can win, and we play with conviction and confidence there's a very good chance we would.

You're right to be honest, when I said "playing on the break" I meant not playing gung-ho. I wouldn't mind a possession based, slow paced dominance game myself

 

[forevermancity]

well he actualy realised the importance of that match last april didnt he. it was mancini 0 arry 1.

Oh deary me.

If Tevez had his shooting boots on that night, we would have been 2-0 up in ten minutes.

They played on the break, Bellamy didn't track a run back and their wide player crossed for the big lad to head it in.

Typical arry tactics then as stated.

(ps - as much as it will upset you, City seem to be doing better than Spuds this season. so for 2010/11 its Mancini 1 - arry and you 0

how the fuck is it me 0?

im a fucking city fan, i bet if we won the fa cup you would come on here gloating that you were 'right' instead of actualy celebrating.

marvin ive missed 7 games this season, its not that i dont see what mancini is doing, its just not the city way we all thought we would do it.

the general opinion in football is that we play negative football. it doesnt sit well with people.

bluemoon seems to be like a twilight zone

we have players like tevez, silva, yaya toure, NDJ, kompany, not samaras, corradi, edghill, steve howey. forgive me for not wanting the best city team in my lifetime defend like fuck at the swamp. we have a team to get up them now.

 

[gio's side step]

Mate, just ignore the fucking numpties. They are out in full force this week. Playing down expectations again. You and I and the rest of football which in this particular case does include Merson, know, that setting up for a point is fucking ridiculous. The truth is, the majority on here know it too, they just hide behind a certain perception of what their own allegiance entails.

Actually, the people who do know what they are talking about in football (i.e. not people like Merson or other pundits who try to simplify the game down to a box of overused cliches with no bearing in reality) are mainly saying that Mancini should play on the break, because, and I know this is hard for some to admit, we're going to the home of one of the greatest teams in the world who have just gone 29 games unbeaten and whose major strength FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS has been their ability to intercept a football and punish sloppy or meaningless passes.

People just seem to actually forget who United are most of of the time. Do yourself a favour and replace the words "Manchester United" with "Bayern Munich" or "Inter Milan" and then tell me why we should go there all guns blazing.

What the fuck are you talking about 'go there all guns blazing'. I have NEVER said that. All my posts are consistent with the following. There is a difference in being positive in this type of game, and going gung ho. Being positive means, making sure, we approach the game in a manner, which makes them worry about us more than we intend to worry about them. That means not sitting back too deep, pressing, and attacking with fluency, patience and penetration. That might ocassionally entail counter attacking approaches, but we should certainly be more hungry in our desire to WIN the game, than merely HOPE to nick it. That is fucking cowardly, and not clever. Because the odds are Utd will pick us off anyway. They have more variation than Arsenal, thus if we go for the cautious sit back and play for a 0-0 draw approach, we will 9 times out of 10 against Utd, get beat. If we are going to get beat, then at least go down fighting, and having thrown a few fucking jabs, unlike the first game, where regardless of the 'point', we never intended to throw a single jab at all. I am not calling for tactical naivity, but these idiots on here calling for a 'point' approach is just ridiculous.

 

[SWP's back]

Oh deary me.

If Tevez had his shooting boots on that night, we would have been 2-0 up in ten minutes.

They played on the break, Bellamy didn't track a run back and their wide player crossed for the big lad to head it in.

Typical arry tactics then as stated.

(ps - as much as it will upset you, City seem to be doing better than Spuds this season. so for 2010/11 its Mancini 1 - arry and you 0

how the fuck is it me 0?

im a fucking city fan, i bet if we won the fa cup you would come on here gloating that you were 'right' instead of actualy celebrating.

marvin ive missed 7 games this season, its not that i dont see what mancini is doing, its just not the city way we all thought we would do it.

the general opinion in football is that we play negative football. it doesnt sit well with people.

bluemoon seems to be like a twilight zone

we have players like tevez, silva, yaya toure, NDJ, kompany, not samaras, corradi, edghill, steve howey. forgive me for not wanting the best city team in my lifetime defend like fuck at the swamp. we have a team to get up them now.

General opinion is no gauge on reality unfortunately.

We have scored the 4th highest amount in the league, 7 goals more than amazing arry.

Luckily I have my own eyes and make my own judgements on how negative we are, without having to be told be idiots in the press or fans of other teams. It sits perfectly well with me.

 

[SWP's back]

Actually, the people who do know what they are talking about in football (i.e. not people like Merson or other pundits who try to simplify the game down to a box of overused cliches with no bearing in reality) are mainly saying that Mancini should play on the break, because, and I know this is hard for some to admit, we're going to the home of one of the greatest teams in the world who have just gone 29 games unbeaten and whose major strength FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS has been their ability to intercept a football and punish sloppy or meaningless passes.

People just seem to actually forget who United are most of of the time. Do yourself a favour and replace the words "Manchester United" with "Bayern Munich" or "Inter Milan" and then tell me why we should go there all guns blazing.

What the fuck are you talking about 'go there all guns blazing'. I have NEVER said that. All my posts are consistent with the following. There is a difference in being positive in this type of game, and going gung ho. Being positive means, making sure, we approach the game in a manner, which makes them worry about us more than we intend to worry about them. That means not sitting back too deep, pressing, and attacking with fluency, patience and penetration. That might ocassionally entail counter attacking approaches, but we should certainly be more hungry in our desire to WIN the game, than merely HOPE to nick it. That is fucking cowardly, and not clever. Because the odds are Utd will pick us off anyway. They have more variation than Arsenal, thus if we go for the cautious sit back and play for a 0-0 draw approach, we will 9 times out of 10 against Utd, get beat. If we are going to get beat, then at least go down fighting, and having thrown a few fucking jabs, unlike the first game, where regardless of the 'point', we never intended to throw a single jab at all. I am not calling for tactical naivity, but these idiots on here calling for a 'point' approach is just ridiculous.

Can you point to the people, or idiots if you prefer (other than Ragnorak) on here that have called for a point please you angry young man?

Oh and FUCK! (see, now my point has come across much better)

 

[forevermancity]

how the fuck is it me 0?

im a fucking city fan, i bet if we won the fa cup you would come on here gloating that you were 'right' instead of actualy celebrating.

marvin ive missed 7 games this season, its not that i dont see what mancini is doing, its just not the city way we all thought we would do it.

the general opinion in football is that we play negative football. it doesnt sit well with people.

bluemoon seems to be like a twilight zone

we have players like tevez, silva, yaya toure, NDJ, kompany, not samaras, corradi, edghill, steve howey. forgive me for not wanting the best city team in my lifetime defend like fuck at the swamp. we have a team to get up them now.

General opinion is no gauge on reality unfortunately.

We have scored the 4th highest amount in the league, 7 goals more than amazing arry.

Luckily I have my own eyes and make my own judgements on how negative we are, without having to be told be idiots in the press or fans of other teams. It sits perfectly well with me.

so do you think we should approach the game the same way we approached utd home game, spurs away and arsenal way?

or villa home, liverpool home and fulham away?

i hope mancini is thinking must win, not must not lose.

 

[smithy167]

Actually, the people who do know what they are talking about in football (i.e. not people like Merson or other pundits who try to simplify the game down to a box of overused cliches with no bearing in reality) are mainly saying that Mancini should play on the break, because, and I know this is hard for some to admit, we're going to the home of one of the greatest teams in the world who have just gone 29 games unbeaten and whose major strength FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS has been their ability to intercept a football and punish sloppy or meaningless passes.

People just seem to actually forget who United are most of of the time. Do yourself a favour and replace the words "Manchester United" with "Bayern Munich" or "Inter Milan" and then tell me why we should go there all guns blazing.

What the fuck are you talking about 'go there all guns blazing'. I have NEVER said that. All my posts are consistent with the following. There is a difference in being positive in this type of game, and going gung ho. Being positive means, making sure, we approach the game in a manner, which makes them worry about us more than we intend to worry about them. That means not sitting back too deep, pressing, and attacking with fluency, patience and penetration. That might ocassionally entail counter attacking approaches, but we should certainly be more hungry in our desire to WIN the game, than merely HOPE to nick it. That is fucking cowardly, and not clever. Because the odds are Utd will pick us off anyway. They have more variation than Arsenal, thus if we go for the cautious sit back and play for a 0-0 draw approach, we will 9 times out of 10 against Utd, get beat. If we are going to get beat, then at least go down fighting, and having thrown a few fucking jabs, unlike the first game, where regardless of the 'point', we never intended to throw a single jab at all. I am not calling for tactical naivity, but these idiots on here calling for a 'point' approach is just ridiculous.

Have you seen the rags home record? a point would be a great result for us, to suggest otherwise is amazingly stupid.

 

[gio's side step]

Mate, just ignore the fucking numpties. They are out in full force this week. Playing down expectations again. You and I and the rest of football which in this particular case does include Merson, know, that setting up for a point is fucking ridiculous. The truth is, the majority on here know it too, they just hide behind a certain perception of what their own allegiance entails.

Hmmm ok, well I'll just be a numpty then and point out that a 3-2 loss is not as good as a 0-0 draw.

For example replace the 4-3 defeat with a nil nil last year and we wouldn't have had to beat spuds in the "play off game" that we ended up losing one nil.

You should really check your argument when you have Merson onside.

Shaun, that is the most illogical argument you have ever constructed. Why in particular the Utd game? Why not another game where we dropped points? You could pick any game where we narrowly lost, or two/three games we drew which we should have won. You can't single the Utd game as a game which directly affected us having to beat Spurs.

And taking 'generalisation' a side, it's your kind of attitude, 'that we would get beat 4-3 again if we set up to be less cautious than we did in the first derby game', which is the problem. You end up giving the players so many fucking things to worry about, to think about, all in the context of making sure we 'dont get beat'. I once remember Arthur Cox coming out in the press when Keegan was absent for a game, proclaiming 'if you cant win the game, make sure you dont get beat'. Oh fucking genius. But at least Cox in that sense, was thinking, of 'set the team up to try and win the game first and foremost'. Mancini at home against Utd, didnt set up honestly at all. It was a fucking cop out. And an insult to us as supporters in a game which matters to us, on and off the pitch.

He will probably do the same again tomorrow. Hope to nick a win. Yet we more than have a side capable of going there and doing a real job on them if he takes the reigns off and trusts the players. Respect Utd yes, fear them no.

 

[SWP's back]

General opinion is no gauge on reality unfortunately.

We have scored the 4th highest amount in the league, 7 goals more than amazing arry.

Luckily I have my own eyes and make my own judgements on how negative we are, without having to be told be idiots in the press or fans of other teams. It sits perfectly well with me.

so do you think we should approach the game the same way we approached utd home game, spurs away and arsenal way?

or villa home, liverpool home and fulham away?

i hope mancini is thinking must win, not must not lose.

I have already stated that I think he will (and should) approach the game as we did against Chelsea.

 

[gio's side step]

What the fuck are you talking about 'go there all guns blazing'. I have NEVER said that. All my posts are consistent with the following. There is a difference in being positive in this type of game, and going gung ho. Being positive means, making sure, we approach the game in a manner, which makes them worry about us more than we intend to worry about them. That means not sitting back too deep, pressing, and attacking with fluency, patience and penetration. That might ocassionally entail counter attacking approaches, but we should certainly be more hungry in our desire to WIN the game, than merely HOPE to nick it. That is fucking cowardly, and not clever. Because the odds are Utd will pick us off anyway. They have more variation than Arsenal, thus if we go for the cautious sit back and play for a 0-0 draw approach, we will 9 times out of 10 against Utd, get beat. If we are going to get beat, then at least go down fighting, and having thrown a few fucking jabs, unlike the first game, where regardless of the 'point', we never intended to throw a single jab at all. I am not calling for tactical naivity, but these idiots on here calling for a 'point' approach is just ridiculous.

Have you seen the rags home record? a point would be a great result for us, to suggest otherwise is amazingly stupid.

I'm not saying a point would be a bad result. I'm saying to go there and set up to only play for a point is a bad approach. There is a difference