Napoli (H) - Thu 18th Sept, 20:00 | CL | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction?

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Sam69 said:
If we're objective and realistic, we have a better chance of winning against Napoli at home on Thursday in the Champions League than against Arsenal on Sunday at the Emirates. So I prefer to start with the strongest possible team. The team needs a second straight win to confirm the derby result.

Winning against the Italian champions, the best team in Serie A at the moment, will give us the confidence to successfully navigate the trip to London. A bad result will make us doubt ourselves. That's why I'm hoping for this lineup:

.......................Donnarumma...................

Khusanov.....Dias.......Gvardiol....O'Reilly

.......................Nico G......Rodri................

O Bobb................Foden................Doku

...........................Haaland.......................
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yeah, I like that
 
The Mighty Marmoush said:
It's an absolute joke, and a massive advantage for them
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It was roles reversed last season, albeit we played the Wednesday and not the Tuesday. They played the Thursday and had us at our place on the Sunday.

As Mexico said above, it’ll be Friday matches soon in the CL.
 
Need to stop Kev, Conte is using him like Pirlo when he was at Juve , this vid describes it perfectly. We stop Kev we stop Napoli playing

 
Sam69 said:
If we're objective and realistic, we have a better chance of winning against Napoli at home on Thursday in the Champions League than against Arsenal on Sunday at the Emirates. So I prefer to start with the strongest possible team. The team needs a second straight win to confirm the derby result.

Winning against the Italian champions, the best team in Serie A at the moment, will give us the confidence to successfully navigate the trip to London. A bad result will make us doubt ourselves. That's why I'm hoping for this lineup:

.......................Donnarumma...................

Khusanov.....Dias.......Gvardiol....O'Reilly

.......................Nico G......Rodri................

O Bobb................Foden................Doku

...........................Haaland.......................
Click to expand...
Why would we change the side from the team who played Utd?

The only reason would be to keep players fresh with Arsenal in mind. Reijnders starts for me. He has goals in him. He could have had 2 goals in the Derby. He had a snatched shot and that one on one.

Bobb could come in.

The other possibility is Stones. If Stones is fit, then he would always start imo because he is such a good footballer who gives you extra control in a game. I doubt he will be fit though. I hope he appears in the training pictures this week.
 
My main concern is the not giving up possession but the amount of chances conceded each game. Rags could have scored 2/3. Need to limit those to half chances.
 
alexmcity said:
Having less possession than United wasn't planned. Pep explained recently that he won't give up on his principles, including possession-based football. What will change is being more direct when there are spaces to attack.
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We seem to win when we don’t play his type of football. It’s quite astonishing at this point
 
wolviedinho said:
Some truth in that unfortunately. Maybe a good thing that the club will read this.

The defending has been a shambles.
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Think the club will do plenty of analysis and see how easily we gave away possesion on Sunday and be working on it. Doubt they'll see a Di Canio quote and suddenly realise it happened.
 
wolviedinho said:
My main concern is the not giving up possession but the amount of chances conceded each game. Rags could have scored 2/3. Need to limit those to half chances.
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genuine q apart from the mbuemo hit which was just a good hit, what massive chances did we give up to the rags, im not being obtuse i just dont remember in the game when they created huge chances
 
King Jay said:
We seem to win when we don’t play his type of football. It’s quite astonishing at this point
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City are re-building. We have players like Reijnders who are at the beginning of a learning curve. Players like Khusanov, Doku, O'Reilly are still developing. Rodri is recovering. And we have a number of significant players who are currently injured (Stones, Kovacic, Marmoush and Cherki). Why would anyone expect continuity? That would be almost as stupid as expecting Man Utd, a team who are playing like a relegation outfit , to win at the Etihad.
 
mancboy said:
genuine q apart from the mbuemo hit which was just a good hit, what massive chances did we give up to the rags, im not being obtuse i just dont remember in the game when they created huge chances
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....and we could've/should've scored six !!
 
mancboy said:
genuine q apart from the mbuemo hit which was just a good hit, what massive chances did we give up to the rags, im not being obtuse i just dont remember in the game when they created huge chances
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They had a lot of possession in the 2nd half. Two or three years ago, there would have been no chance that a team like Man Utd could dominate possession for a significant period of the match. That wasn't ideal and demonstrated some midfield weakness, and probably fatigue. Overall, City won comprehensively. Better City sides have lost to Man Utd. City are on our way but it's impossible to say how quickly we will recover. It depends on Rodri's recovery and the development of players like Khusanov, O'Reilly, Foden, Reijnders and Cherki. It also depends on the fitness of John Stones. It would be a great boost for example if he were fit for Napoli.
 
Marvin. said:
They had a lot of possession in the 2nd half. Two or three years ago, there would have been no chance that a team like Man Utd could dominate possession for a significant period of the match. That wasn't ideal and demonstrated some midfield weakness, and probably fatigue. Overall, City won comprehensively. Better City sides have lost to Man Utd. City are on our way but it's impossible to say how quickly we will recover. It depends on Rodri's recovery and the development of players like Khusanov, O'Reilly, Foden, Reijnders and Cherki. It also depends on the fitness of John Stones. It would be a great boost for example if he were fit for Napoli.
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Im not disputing that they had alot of possesion which was unusual for them but i just dont recall them creating a tremendous amount with it. Possession while nice and good to look at on the stats sheet isnt the be all and end all how many times recently have u seen city dominate a game and be on the wrong end of a result to a team with far less possession that were clinical and quick.
 
King Jay said:
We seem to win when we don’t play his type of football. It’s quite astonishing at this point
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Football is and always has been a evolving game,every style has eventually been matched and surpassed.
Peps challenge is whether he can adapt his football philosophy to counter the styles that have rendered his original game obsolete.
Last season he spoke of getting the ball forward more quickly with the likes of Doku being a purchase that would enable this, unfortunately we still played a slow inching our way forward possession style and Doku's effectiveness was limited due to where he would eventually receive the ball.
On Sunday the rags had considerably more possession than we would normally allow them so players like Haaland and Doku sat much deeper contributing defensively,but it meant whenever we turned over possession both burst forward and we all saw the difference it made to their contribution.
As great as performances like the Madrid hammering were based on our possession controlled style,the level of concentration and accuracy required to pull off performances like that are almost impossible to maintain,and it's why we have been picked off so often by lesser teams.
If Pep can adapt and develop a style to win us more titles against the teams currently in the ascendency it will be his greatest achievement yet.
 
Sam69 said:
If we're objective and realistic, we have a better chance of winning against Napoli at home on Thursday in the Champions League than against Arsenal on Sunday at the Emirates. So I prefer to start with the strongest possible team. The team needs a second straight win to confirm the derby result.

Winning against the Italian champions, the best team in Serie A at the moment, will give us the confidence to successfully navigate the trip to London. A bad result will make us doubt ourselves. That's why I'm hoping for this lineup:

.......................Donnarumma...................

Khusanov.....Dias.......Gvardiol....O'Reilly

.......................Nico G......Rodri................

O Bobb................Foden................Doku

...........................Haaland.......................
Click to expand...

That's the team I'd like to see against Arsenal. We had a specific system to exploit the rags, and it worked but the possession and pass completion were miles off where they should be even with the tactics in mind.

I would like to see the above side, but I think it's more suitable for Arsenal than Napoli. We know Kev isn't the most mobile player so I think we can play Reijnders instead of Nico.
 
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