United (H) - Sun 6th March, 16:30 | Pre-Match Thread

[Gingers Dad]

Fucking hell, have you EVER made an upbeat post? Rhetorical

I thought that was Fordy being upbeat

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Mahrez is in great form this season but has he ever turned up against the Rags?

League Cup semi at toilet couple years back?

My thinking is about the balance of the team, rather than any one individual.

If Sterling plays, same with Kev, it also exposes the risk of easier ball turnover, the whole risk reward thing...

United want a game of counters, something they are actually very good at.

 

[Tb1981]

League Cup semi at toilet couple years back?

My thinking is about the balance of the team, rather than any one individual.

If Sterling plays, same with Kev, it also exposes the risk of easier ball turnover, the whole risk reward thing...

United want a game of counters, something they are actually very good at.

The best thing united could do is drop ronaldo
But they won’t and they surely will play into our hands.
We need to score first and ideally early
Then when they open up we can leather them

 

[Mike D]

I will never predict derbies because they always have a habit of being turned on their head. But if we can get at them as we did at the swamp score earlier and control the game. They are still capable of playing shit and getting results as they have been doing since Wreck It Ralph came in. We have just got to be relentless moving the ball quick and exploit every weakness.

 

[mancityscot]

Really is about time that we beat them at home. Guardiola's record against them at The Etihad is pretty shocking.

Think this will probably be the team:

Ederson
Walker
Stones (Dias if fit)
Laporte
Cancelo
Rodri
Gundogan
Bernardo
De Bruyne
Foden
Sterling

I'd like to see Grealish and Mahrez start though personally.

See, this for me is where the problem was against spurs and everton.

 

[Rmcfc23]

Is it really the case that if they beat us, it's four Derby defeats in a row at home How?? Just how? They need destroying. End of.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

My lads back from 2 months working for the forces in Kenya, just landed this morning down south. Fuck knows where he'll be in the future.

Really looking forward to seeing him and enjoying a game again (Mrs Moon bless her has been using his ticket, it's a different experience when she's there ;)) with him along with a few scoops.

Come on City, let's do this properly and rip them a new one.

 

[Ric]

See, this for me is where the problem was against spurs and everton.

Yeah, as tough as it is to drop one of them, I think it needs to be either Gundogan or De Bruyne, not both.

 

[SSL2]

Yeah, as tough as it is to drop one of them, I think it needs to be either Gundogan or De Bruyne, not both.

I think as afew have eluded to earlier on in the thread^ we will win this game by control - minimising the chance to get counter attacked. If we keep the ball and move it like we can then gaps will appear in their defence.

That's why I would prefer a midfield three of Rodri Gundo & Bernardo which gives us complete control. Although De Bruyne is a better player and can produce moments of genius out of nowhere - he plays a lot more risky (which sometimes benefits us splitting the lines etc) but sometimes has passes go astray leaving us vulnerable to counter attacks, which is the total opposite of what we need in this game.

 

[domalino]

I don't want to jinx this, and I'm not saying it's going to happen, however...

IMO there is no team more vulnerable than a team that wants to press high and aggressively but isn't good enough to do it against us.

This is where United are IMO. They are trying to press like Rangnick wants them, but they're not very good at it, and they don't have the fitness. They are able to do it well for about 15-20 minutes in each half and the rest of the game there are big gaps everywhere where they give up loads of big chances.

They also haven't been absolutely slapped about yet and their confidence is rising a bit after getting to 4th and only losing 1 game under the new regime so Rangnick hasn't had the game that makes him think, "OK lets pause developing the team for this week and just park the bus".

I think they'll be told to go out and press, they'll be dangerous for periods, but if we are absolutely on it, this could be like Leeds.