Watford (h) pre-match thread

[Gabriel]

Bit of a shit that Iheanacho has gone from matchwinner at City to benchwarmer at Leicester.

Perfect player to back up the situation, never complaind, scored goals regularly including a last min one at Palace, if I remember rightly.

If we could get Nmecha coming on & pinching a couple of goals it would be perfect. Irrespective of whether he makes it or not afterwards. Just having that extra body in there, to nick one at the right time, can be enough to win an extra trophy or two.

Agree. While we’re very much a collective team, it would be good if one of the fringe players came in and seized the opportunity.

 

[Gray]

Jesus is out.
Aguero's out of form and carrying an injury.
KDB is probably out.
Silva only just got back from Spain.
Stones' first game back.
Sané is out of form and moody about it.
Delph is probably still out.


At this point I'll take any kind of 3 points we can get.

Can I add B. Silva and Gundogan not cutting the mustard when they start.

Also Chelsea and Dippers playing better than us at present.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Nacho has nowhere near the level of skill Sterling has, let alone the speed of thought and body to deliver what pep would expect. We simply will have to agree to disagree

Nacho was a better finisher than Sterling, until this season. By some distance. In fact at one point, he was a better finisher than Aguero, when Aguero was in form.

Whatever his future holds elsewhere, nobody can ever complain that he wasn't in the right place to score & able to score, for City.

 

[BerkshireBlue]

I am concerned what the atmosphere / crowd would be like and whether that will affect the players. Given the kids went back today or (my son) tomorrow - the family stand is going to be half empty .

I am not going tonight as nipper has school tomorrow - given weather forecast for later as well hope crowd is ok.

Whoever heard of a game on 2 jan at night anyway - stupid idea.

Is Gill doing the scheduling.

The scheduling is a complete mess this year too many tv games has caused the issue in my opinion.
Also why have Spurs been lucky enough to get a winter break?

 

[mosssideblue]

Important we go out tonight and from the first minute move the ball with a quick tempo. We looked lethargic against palace and it seemed very easy for them defensively as we didn't push them around the pitch quick enough to create and exploit gaps. We do that from the start tonight and we should win convincingly. We can't lose that aura of invincibility we've built because of one poor game.

Agree. These last few games we have had a lackluster first 45 only for Pep to hair dryer them at the interval.

 

[Wooter]

Fairly straightforward game-plan for Watford tonight: kick the fuck out of our lads, get away with it and go home happy with a point. Let's hope the Pepmeister can work some magic again and get us the three points. CTID.

And which of our lily-livered titans do you think will be arsed enough to do this kicking?

 

[uwe rosler 28]

It is a gamble though, not because of the defensive side of things, but because Yaya kills our attacking game as well. He slows everything down, has zero movement and has even lost his threat from long range now.

Starting him is handcuffing our attack and putting the handbrake on. It pretty much rules out any quick start to the game, or keeping the game at a pace that Watford can't deal with, and would probably lead to us needing a late goal with Watford thinking they can get something from the game.

We should be starting the best team possible and then resting the players when the game is won, through substitutions and by killing the game and making it a keep-ball exercise.

So many different ways to look at it what if we fail to make an early breakthrough?

 

[deano ou812]

There was a cross KDB put in the other day which sailed past the near post with Aguero nowhere near it.

If you had never seen KDB play, there would be a slight excuse for it, but really, as a striker, you should guess it anyway.

Kelechi, for us, was a game winner with stuff like that. (Not at Leicester, he missed one he would score for City with his eyes shut)

For me it’s just having someone who the majority of time is a goal hanger,might take away slightly from the team in terms of pressing but I feel we need someone like that,can’t have players dribbling past three four defenders all the time and scoring,the type who scored in the derby last season at the shithole when everyone stopped playing as they thought the striker was offside the ball fell to him fortunately,but it’s being in them positions it’s something that you can’t teach, it’s an uncanny sense to be in the right position at the right time ..

 

[mosssideblue]

Nacho was a better finisher than Sterling, until this season. By some distance. In fact at one point, he was a better finisher than Aguero, when Aguero was in form.

Whatever his future holds elsewhere, nobody can ever complain that he wasn't in the right place to score & able to score, for City.

I'm not disputing that, but he would be useless in a pep system. I get we are all miffed as to why our front players are struggling to find the net as well as we know they can, but I just dont see any argument to suggest an ex player would have slotted them as it can only be a speculative call

 

[kaz7]

we'll be crap as usual at home until pep gets in their faces at halftime ,i know they are tired but try and get it done early rather than having to find a second wind in the last 15mins