I feel like last weekend didn’t really count, except for the three points of course. Now it’s time to sort the men from the boys, and a really good test away at Stoke. As this is the height of the British summer, I was curious to see what the weather was going to be like on Saturday lunch time:
It could worse
As you will see the Potters are quite verbose this week ( good word that, I blame the Stephen Fry book I am reading!). Bottom line is, I cannot wait.
COME ON CITY !!!
Officials
Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: S Long, A Garratt
Fourth official: R East
Team Selection
Given
Johnson Shawcross Wolly Pieters
Imbula Allen
Walters Shaq Arnie
Bojan
My favourite
The thing is we might lose this game. On the other hand we might win. Then again it might be a draw.
And the rest…
I don’t care as long as there is a new face or two either starting or on the bench…A return to false ninery for me…We should have beaten them 6-0 last season.
Need to give Pieters at least this game to redeem himself, if he gets ruined in this match then Muniesa comes in for the next game…- Glen replaced Bardo if fit, if not then i would play Cameron due to Bardo`s poor performance against Middlesboro…- Whelan looked very poor in preseason and against Middlesboro so unless we play all three CMs then he`s the one to drop out for me
Could be a massive victory if we manage it. Early kickoff too so could cause ripples…Come on Boj, show that charlatan wannabe-tactician that he’s overrated tat. You deserve it lad
Not sure how you counter some of Guardiola’s formations…Against Sunderland his fullbacks were often ahead of and central to the two centre halves…Weird shit… :-)
Man city will score at least 3
Did anyone see on motd how the full backs played inside for them when they had the ball? Got to pressure them into mistakes as they aren’t used to living the ball on quickly otherwise this could be a potential stumbling block for us!
Come on Sparky, give us a reprise of the false-9 bollocks. Would be glorious to style all over Pep’s journeymen.
I’m slightly worried though that Hughes will go for a false 9 instead with Bojan up top which would be a complete disaster considering Pep likes to play a high pressure game against which the false 9 is useless, unless of course you’re Barcelona and can play your way through the intense pressure.
If Guardiola didn’t invent the false nine, he was certainly one of the first managers to use it, first with Villa, later with Fabregas…However if he goes into the game expecting us to play long balls to Diouf and Walters (depends on how much homework he’s done), then the false nine would work if we scored early on. Guardiola hasn’t made too many changes yet, so their defenders might be caught out again. But if we don’t take advantage early on, Guardiola will just adapt to the circumstances and the tactic will be futile.
Let’s see: chances are we’ll play against a Citeh side that has either Navas, the fastest man alive, or de Bruyne, on the right, backed with either Sagna or Zabaleta who both love going forward, and you want us to play without any left back at all. ..If that wasn’t bad enough you’re expecting Wolly, the slower than slowest dfender, to cover in the absence of said left back?…And just to kill us off entirely you’re expecting Arnie to track nack to help the left bacl that isn’t there…I am by no means a fan of Pieters, but if Muniesa isn’t fit, then we need the Dutchman to ruffle a few feathers out there.
If the keepers going to play as a sweeper Charlie has to play.
Having watched them abit tonight we have to flood the midfield on Saturday or we’ll get overrun…
Thinking about the Man City game and last years game and how City almost put 7 past Bucharest last night…Shaq seems so dangerous in the middle. Maybe it’s time to rotate him and Bojan in that role and free up the right wing for a more natural winger?…Give them 45 minutes each to keep them fresh?…I.e. Any two of Arnie/Sobhi/Walters/Imbula…With Allen and Whelan behind…Or is that heresy to suggest we’d be better balanced that way?…(And Diouf might actually get some service)…
Cant imagine us not conceding so are going to have to have the shooting boots on…Not filled with confidence after their result last night
He would have saved that
He would have saved thaaaaat
Joe Hart…..he would have saved that.
About three times please Stoke.
I saw that caballero play in a cup game last season, made a couple of good saves but also looked very dodgy at times…perfect game for Ryan to rediscover his scoring head again
Any chance we can bring Delap back for the dodgy keeper (Joe and Willy fit this label)
Don’t forget lads. We’ll be playing the ref as well.
Obviously a really tough game and we must be huge underdogs…Very difficult team selection and no right answer. The arguments for Charlie to start are good. Pep loves this “sweeper-keeper” thing, and surely MH and Co will be aware of it. Get your head up Charlie and don’t be afraid to have a go? Is he mobile enough to cope with Manchester City’s midfield though? Probably not…Pep also wants to encourage Stones to come out with the ball, so does Diouf or Walters play up top to get in his face and force an error? Similarly, if their fullbacks push right out of their traditional positions, surely we can create space out wide? Same as last year – out to Shaq on the right to play in Arnie coming steaming across the box from the left. Absolutely beautiful…
I’m glad I don’t have to set up the team and organise the system and tactics. Very hard for this one. I’m not sure what he’ll do “to be perfectly honest”…I’ve defended the squad and the club on here over the last day or so, and it shows just how far we’ve come that it would not be a massive surprise if we get something out of this game against a team that could easily reach the last 4 of the Champions League again. .. On the other hand, we could take a pasting from this lot…Good luck lads and have a go. This is a real test.
We will need to have our BIG players perform to their best to stand a chance ie Shaq, Bojan & Arnie. Not to mention Imbula and Allen to boss the center of the pitch
Just listening to Colin Murray on TalkSport and he was building this game up as some sort of battle of footballing philosophies. OK, it’s not a wet and windy night at The Brit, and TP isn’t in charge, but the managerial “Son of God” is finally…finally bringing a team to play against us – the Mighty Potters at our home ground. I can’t effin’ wait for this one.
I’m totally sober and I still think we might sneak a victory here. We tend to do well against the blue mancs.
If Sagna and Clichy piss about in midfield like they did against Sunderland they’ll get a bit of a shock I think…Just hope we are up for it like last year, if we are we can get another positive result.
Man City are poor at the back so you always have a chance against them. Problem is so are we. Going for a 7-7
