Pre Match Thread - City v Juventus (update for injuries)

[Proy]

think thats how we will set up as well mate ideally. Yaya and fernandinho behind sterling,silva, de bruyne, bony and unchanged back 5 as well

I hope we are both right. It's my ideal scenario, but I think Navas will start and potentially Otamendi.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

How can anybody not like Buffon? An absolute legend of the game and a complete gentleman to boot.

And yet he was on the back pages here less than a fortnight ago saying our money could never buy the class or prestige of Juventus and Manchester United, and that we will always be considered a small club.

Complete gentleman my arse.

The irony of suggesting Juventus had class after all their fixing.

 

[SuperNotts]

Juve are a fantastic football club with great tradition. Some of the best supporters in the world and I can't wait to be in the stand with them tomorrow.

 

[pudge]

And yet he was on the back pages here less than a fortnight ago saying our money could never buy the class or prestige of Juventus and Manchester United, and that we will always be considered a small club.

Complete gentleman my arse.

The irony of suggesting Juventus had class after all their fixing.

He's never been afraid to have a dig at us,

"They have signed some great players but I get the feeling they are signing great players for the sake of signing them," Buffon said"

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/6329357/buffon-blasts-city-defence

“It doesn’t surprise me that a lot of big players have turned down Manchester City,”

“The best players in the world want to be playing for the top teams in the top three leagues, no more than five or six teams in Europe.

"It’s a very elite list and Manchester City have to accept the fact they are not one of them."

http://m.goal.com/s/en/news/10/ital...alkeeper-gianluigi-buffon-rejected-manchester

 

[ninjamonkey]

It's a blow but i'm not too worried about Sergio, i'd rather have Silva and Sterling fit. I can see him playing Sterling upfront with Silva Navas and Nasr/KDB behind him. I'll be satisfied with any team he puts out as long as he doesn't change the back 4 and we stick to one upfront. This game will be the litmus test for Yaya. He needs to prove he can do it in Europe in a midfield 2 with slightly more protection than usual with the 3 infront of him, otherwise he gets benched or pushed further forward, as fantastic on the ball as he is, we can't carry him or anybody for that matter when out of possession in Europe.

 

[Pitchell]

And yet he was on the back pages here less than a fortnight ago saying our money could never buy the class or prestige of Juventus and Manchester United, and that we will always be considered a small club.

Complete gentleman my arse.

The irony of suggesting Juventus had class after all their fixing.

He didn't say that they will always be considered a small club, he said that they can't be considered a a big club yet, given that they haven't won anything on the international stage.

He's right, to be fair - City have to build their own prestige over time. All the money in the world can't buy a club's global prestige which comes with history. It's undeniable that City don't have that yet.

Quite frankly, even if he were wrong, it doesn't make him either a neo-Nazi or a hooligan. One quick glance at his public political statements would be enough to dismiss that argument as laughable at best.

 

[PaulJuve]

Juve are a fantastic football club with great tradition. Some of the best supporters in the world and I can't wait to be in the stand with them tomorrow.

Thanks man.
It will be a great pleasure, we'll see a great match!

 

[pardoeofftomexico]

[

He's never been afraid to have a dig at us,


http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/6329357/buffon-blasts-city-defence
http://m.goal.com/s/en/news/10/ital...alkeeper-gianluigi-buffon-rejected-manchester

The last quote was, of course, absolutely true since it comes from 2010.

 

[Sergio Picasso Aguero]

It's ironic that usually Sergio is the player we can't afford to be missing but on current form he is probably one of the few players that we can afford to miss. If you take out his goal this season we would still be exactly where we are in the table with the same points. The back 4 have kept 5/5 clean sheets so being able to keep the same personnel in that area of the pitch is vital. Yaya and Dinho are the first choice central midfield and I expect both to start because I think Ferna missing training was more of a precautionary measure. All 5 attacking midfielders are available (Silva, Nasri, De Bruyne, Sterling, Navas) which gives Pellegrini plenty of options in the starting eleven and on the bench. Bony is the perfect striker to play against Italian defences imo due to his strength and like I said before, even though Aguero being out is a big loss on paper, this season there is not much to choose between Sergio and Wilf. And if worse comes to worse and Bony picks up an injury then we proved last season that we are capable of playing the false 9 system and we definitely have the players who can play that system. So despite injuries to the likes of Zabaleta, Fernando and Aguero, I still think the starting eleven will be the strongest we could put out at this moment in time.

...................................................................................
.......................................Hart.......................................
...................................................................................
Sagna...............Kompany...............Mangala...............Kolarov
...................................................................................
...................Yaya Touré...............Fernandinho...................
...................................................................................
De Bruyne.........................Silva......................Sterling/Nasri
...................................................................................
......................................Bony.......................................
...................................................................................


City 3-0 (Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne)

 

[MeatHunterrr]

Just please, a good european performance for once, no naive tactics, no players shitting their pants when they hear CL music. Based on our performances in Europe previously, not feeling very optimistic, but hopefully we get the win, which we need to win the group.