Napoli (Away) Pre Match Thread

[vmsuhail]

A match against a top European side away from home is almost impossible to win. Guardiola is no exception to this norm. A draw would be a fine result. I wish Jesus starts just so that we may avoid the loss.

 

[Nightmare Walking]

Totally agree.

No chance we let this one go tonight. We let the league cup go last season and then seemed to lose all momentum, which at the time time resuscitating United while they were there to finished off.

Tonight is far more important than Sunday. To go over there and do what no English team has ever done would send a clear message round Europe that we are the real deal. Also means if we won that we could rest player against Shakira before a far more important game against the rags.

Arsenal are shite and champions league or not, there should be no excuse for not beating them on Sunday.

 

[Andrew___K]

If Shaktar need to beat City to qualify, and City already through, Pep will defo send a reduced squad.
A. The derby at the weekend.
B. Napoli out, they're a dangerous brute

This. And looking from broader perspective, today's game is the opportunity for the team to grow and gain invaluable experience. Napoli is probably the most tactically sophisticated opposition that we're going to meet this season, PL teams are not even close.

 

[Rammy Blue]

No chance we let this one go tonight. We let the league cup go last season and then seemed to lose all momentum, which at the time time resuscitating United while they were there to finished off.

Tonight is far more important than Sunday. To go over there and do what no English team has ever done would send a clear message round Europe that we are the real deal. Also means if we won that we could rest player against Shakira before a far more important game against the rags.

Arsenal are shite and champions league or not, there should be no excuse for not beating them on Sunday.

Spot on.

 

[Metalartin]

I want us to win this one and have voted for a win as I think we should start to be more fearless as a fanbase. We need to shake off that old negative-pessimistic mentality, it will help the team and the atmosphere.

I do think it will be a tight game and perhaps a draw would be a safer bet if you were a betting man, a 1-0 loss wouldn't be a shock either. I don't think any team in the PL would have prayer of winning against this Napoli side away from home but we'll be expected to win and slated if we don't just because: "with all that fackin money spent".

If we do win though it would be a Massive statement with a capital M for how far we've come under Pep.

 

[Ric]

I think tonight could see our first defeat of the season, but I won't be too despondent if it happens. I'm looking forward to seeing how the team cope with such a difficult game tbh. Even with the two recent title winning sides of 2012 and 2014, I never felt particularly confident going into the biggest away games. We didn't seem to have the resilience to grind out results on the road, either domestically at places like Anfield, The Emirates or Stamford Bridge (derbies were the obvious exception) or in the biggest Champions League ties. It'll be fascinating to see if this young side can add that mental toughness to their already admirable list of qualities. If they can then the future is looking incredibly bright indeed (not that it isn't anyway).

 

[lionheart]

Having seen what happened to the Chavs in Roma last night I am absolutely convinced that even a full strength City will lose at Napoli, especially noting the the German referee has never overseen a City victory in Europe. Better to save our best players for the Arsenal game and rest one of either KDB or Merlin and play Dinho & Sergio for no more than 60 minutes irrespective of the score.

 

[IWasHere]

The Arsenal game is the most important of the two. They will play their under 12's again on Thursday and they are at home. They will field 11 fresh players on Sunday. United go to a wounded Chelsea. With the axe hanging over Conte's head that could be good or bad. But Chelsea played their top team in Italy and will have to back 9 of them up. So If Utd win and we lose suddenly things can unravel quickly like last season. Sanchez Ozil Lacazette could just have a brilliant day we cold concede a penalty or red card and pow we get sucker punched. Also really worry about cover if Stones and Otamendi get injured. If we are serious about the league just sacrifice this game already. Save the top 11 for Sunday Win the League this season then go for both next season.

In case you didn't know, we still have 28 games to play in the league so even if we do get beat by arsenal the season won't be over.

If we win tonight we're through to the knockouts and that gives us a bit of leeway in that we'll be able to rest some of our players in the next champions league game and that could be beneficial with the busy schedule coming up.

 

[mcfc1632]

I just cannot see Pep doing other than come out with his normal approach and absolutely go for the win - why are fans so negative?

Over here I spoken to about 20 Napoli fans - not one of which has predicted a Napoli win. The words - City are to strong - I have heard.

Should be great.

 

[Metalartin]

Lets not forget how we dominated them for the first 35 mins at home, if we play at our best they wont be able to live with us, it's just going to be hard to get a performance of that level with the amount of games we've had to get through(also perhaps the upcoming games on their mind will play a part) and the atmosphere away to Napoli.

Chelsea vs Roma was different they could have lost their game and never looked like they could run away with it even when ahead. They went 2-0 up themselves but they didn't have the level of dominance in that game we did, we should have really put the game to bed by making it 3 or 4. In the long run I think it's better we didn't kill the game off because I think games like this are double edge sword our players will be tested both mentally(concentration, positioning etc) and physically more than most teams will be able to do yes(going to need extra efforts to recover legs after it) but they will potentially sharpen our game and bring us on to another level, one that can beat Real, Barca, PSG and lift the trophy.

In short we play our best team in this game, as this is a game the team want learn from and win(if we lose fair enough but we still learn), listen to what Pep says about constant improvement these are the games where you learn things. There's nothing different about Arsenal this year that's short term and they aren't anywhere near this Napoli side tactically.