CHOULO19

South East Citizen and Bert Trautmanns neck brace from ManCityForum were kind enough to answer a few questions ahead of our FA cup semifinal match with Manchester CIty. Here is what they had to say: -Let’s start with the win against united on Monday. Do you think that has revived your tittle hopes or are united still too far ahead? South East Citizen- No, United still too far ahead. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- No and yes -The season is coming to an end, what have you made of it? And how did your team differ from last season? South East Citizen- Not as good as last season but still not a disaster. Winning the FA Cup will make it decent. Haven't scored enough goals this season. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- Second season syndrome -Would you say the FA cup is your priority now? South East Citizen- Yup Bert Trautmanns neck brace- HAs to be -Our games in the league were extremely cagey. Do you expect a similar affair on Sunday and Why? South East Citizen- I think it will be fairly open with all the attacking talent on display and we seem to have the evil eye over Chelsea. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- Depends which teams turn up -Chelsea have had a crazy schedule this season. Do you think that will tip the balance in your way? South East Citizen- Nah I think Chelsea have a big enough squad. Our better team will tip the balance hopefully. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- Possibly although they have rotated well -Silva is a doubt for this one. How big a miss would he be? South East Citizen- A very big miss, we don't really have a player of his class ready to step into that role, although Nasri has been playing better of late. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- Very big -Speaking of Silva, do you think he has been your best player this season or would you nominate someone else? South East Citizen- No. No stand out candidates really this season, Zabaleta has probably been our best player. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- ZAbaletta by far -If you could have one Chelsea player at City, who would it be and why? South East Citizen- Mata or Hazard. Always like Ramires and Ivanovic, although they seem to have gone off the boil of late. Bert Trautmanns neck brace-Mata -What lineup and formation is Mancini likely to use on Sunday? South East Citizen- 442 hopefully. Hart, Zabs, Kompany, Nastastic, Clichy, Milner, Barry, Yaya, Nasri, Tevez, Agüero. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- You tell me -Finally, please predict the result. South East Citizen- 2-0 City. Bert Trautmanns neck brace- Draw 1-1 after 90 mins Click here to view the article

If we're going to play Moses, I'd rather put him on the left wing to defend against Zabaletta who has been by far their best player this season.

I actually agree with everything in there, but they are besides the point I was trying to make. I ask you, is our team more ready to work with Jose, or whoever the new manager is, because we appointed Rafa than what it would have been had we kept Robbie? I think I made a mistake with the tittle, because everyone seems to be answering to the tittle not the content of the article

5alas kol 5ara A point, that someone on twitter pointed out, I'd like to clarify is that I don't think that any manager could have done what Rafa did here this season. Again, I don't mean in terms of result, but in terms of improving the basics of the team and organizing it. In fact, that's what most teams miss, imo. It hurts me to admit it, but Rafa is a good tactician. He makes some idiot decisions especially in his subs and his inability to change a game, but he does well with his teams on the training ground.

Like Ryan said, he's exactly what United need, which worries me a bit, tbh. Ironically, he could also be a good signing for us to play in the pivot, but I doubt he'd return here..

LOL. Now that will be a big "FUCK YOU" to the Chelsea board and management..

Yup, worked fine

@, @Ankit, it worked for BlueArmy but not for Ankit. No idea why though..

Two ways: 1) Highlight some of the text in their post. You will get two options: "Quote" and "Mention". Select the latter. 2) Simply write in your post [ member='member's name' ] without the spaces.

At least spell it right!

No but hashtags are used for global discussions. If you search of click on a hashtag it shows all the tweets in the world that have that hashtag in it. But like everything else the world, teenagers have found a stupid way to use it.

I would seriously punch her in the face if she used it in a conversation with me!

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I know it probably doesn't see this way right now, but time will make you heal and forget him. Look at it this way, if he treated you like this, then you definitely deserve better.

^^ Get back on topic you two. If have something to fight about, take it out through PMs, don't derail this thread.

What makes you think that he would have become a good player had he stayed here? Where would he have gotten the match experience from? I'm happy we gave him to Benfica, had he stayed here he would have been an average player at Vitesse or Hamburg now.

Great goal. Great ball by Kone.

A wrong pen, an OG and an offside goal. I wonder why people call them lucky Arsenal..

I thought those stats meant nothing! Or is that only in the Mikel thread? The more I watch Kevin, the less the idea of loaning him out next season make sense.

Park the f*cking bus Norwich!

I have some great opposition views for this one: Opposition Views Here

Sam McEvilly was kind enough to answer a few questions ahead of our match together in the FA cup semifinal on Sunday. Here is what he had to say: -Let’s start with the win against united on Monday. Do you think that has revived your tittle hopes or are united still too far ahead? Monday was brilliant and a derby win, especially away, is always good for confidence. However, being realistic I'd say the title is well and truly over. The gap is too big and it would take nothing short of a miracle for us to win the league again this year. Despite this, there is a tiny part of me that wants to believe we can still do it. United have some tough games left, Chelsea and Arsenal, as well as Villa, who are fighting to stay up. Anything could happen, between now and the end of the season. Unfortunately the likely hood of it happening is very very small. -The season is coming to an end, what have you made of it? And how did your team differ from last season? This season has been a poor season, in comparison with last. Although it was always going to be hard to repeat the form of last year. City have lacked the ability to finish games off, resulting in far too many draws. Last season we couldn't stop scoring, and if you look at the comparison of statistics between this season and last, they are identical. Possession, passing and shots are all similar to last season. The only difference was the amount of goals. We have not been clinical enough and that for sure has cost us the league. Inconsistency has also been a problem. At the start of the season against Southampton we let two goals in and scrapped a well fought 3-2 victory. From then on, myself and other City fans thought it was only a matter of time before we kicked into form and began to play with some of the flare we had seen the previous season. However, bar a few games City never really found their form and as a result we slowly fell behind United in the title race. -Would you say the FA cup is your priority now? Without a doubt. The FA cup after all is our only chance of silverware. Winning the cup would make up for what has been a disappointing season, domestically and in Europe. I think that winning the FA cup is pivotal for Bobby to keep his job. The owners need some sort of positive outcome from this season to allow him to keep his job. I've been a City fan all my life, and seen my club compete for nothing for the majority of that time. Finishing second and getting to a cup semi final are not what I'd have considered a poor season 3 or 4 years ago. But expectations have changed and I think to salvage anything from this season we HAVE to win the FA cup, so yes it most definitely is a priority to all City fans and the team. -Our games in the league were extremely cagey. Do you expect a similar affair on Sunday and Why? I think Sunday will be a tough game for both teams. Personally I can't decide on a winner, both teams posses massive amounts of ability, especially in the midfield. The class that both teams have at their disposal makes it a tough game for anyone to call. It will be tight, I can't see either team dominating. Both teams have been less than impressive in the league this season. City got the best of Chelsea in the at the Etihad but I think Chelsea will play with a lot higher tempo on Sunday as the stakes are a lot higher now, for both clubs. -Chelsea have had a crazy schedule this season. Do you think that will tip the balance in your way? Honestly, I don't know. If it was a league game then possibly I would agree with that, but since it's a cup semi final I think that the players will all be up for it. I'd like to think that the Chelsea players will be tired after a busy schedule but the fact it's the FA cup and their playing at Wembley I can't see them being anything but up for the game. If you can't get yourself pumped up for a FA cup Semi, you shouldn't be playing football. -Silva is a doubt for this one. How big a miss would he be? Silva is missed massively when he doesn't play. Unfortunately for City we do not have another player that can fill his shoes when he doesn't play. He creates everything, and without him City are a lot less flowing when they attack. Silva always plays balls through to Aguero, Tevez or whoever is playing up front. City still do not have a player who can play in that sort of position and have the same affect as Silva does on the game. However, at Wembley on a massive playing surface I'm not as worried as I would be, if perhaps we were playing at Stoke or West Ham. -Speaking of Silva, do you think he has been your best player this season or would you nominate someone else? Silva has been brilliant at times, but no where near last seasons form. For me, our player of the season would be Zabaleta and you'll have a hard time finding another City fan who doesn't think the same. He's been a class higher than any other City player this season. His desire, his passion are unmatched by the rest of the team. Fans love a player who tries, and Zabba would die for the cause. He has been getting better and better these last few seasons but he has really come into his own this year. Finally it's not just City fans who know how great of a player he is. -If you could have one Chelsea player at City, who would it be and why? Mata. Without a doubt. He would be a perfect replacement for Silva when he was injured and just a brilliant player to have in the squad. The stats for both Silva and Mata are similar, in assists and complete passes. Mata is a quality player, he has vision, he can pass and he can score goals. He's the sort of player any manager would love to have in their team. -What lineup and formation is Mancini likely to use on Sunday? I'd like to think he stuck with the formation and team he played on Monday. Possibly with Yaya playing a more attacking role with Silva being injured. -Finally, please predict the result.I'm going to have to back my own team and go for a City win. It'll be tight, so I'm going for 2-1 City.

I have a feeling Norwich will grind out a result today.

lol I did not take it as an attack, was just trying to discuss the points further. Heck I'm not even 100% convinced with everything in the OP.

Again, this article is in no way about this season's results, which have been disappointing under Rafa. I just asked myself the question: When the new manager arrives in the summer, would he be happier had we kept RDM or was appointing Rafa better for next season? The answer I came up with, is that the new manager would no doubt prefer a team that is more organized and has offensive and defensive systems that the players know their roles in because this team would be much easier to build upon and turn into a team that is capable of challenging for the tittle. This is where the idea for this whole article came from. As has been said, if we fail to make top four, this article would be laughable, because even if Rafa has improved the basics, not making the top four is definitely not better for our future. But if we do get a CL spot, our new manager would get a team that is more organized and easy to work with than if we had kept RDM.

I completely agree with the point about the board. In fact I made the same point on the last page. The board had made terrible decisions that had led us to that point, but at that precise point in time, I feel the best choice was hiring Benitez. Yes RDM had a great start, but I think that had to do more with the high of winning the CL. You always start on high note after a great achievement the previous season. It also had to do with our new players that no one seemed to know how to defend against. Yes were second when he got sacked, but we were playing incredible bad for a couple of weeks before. in fact our worst spell of performances this season were probably those 2-3 weeks. I honestly don't think the club was going anywhere with RDM, and the performances were only going to get worse, The managerial change was justified, imo. I feel you have to give the manager credit, because Hazard started tracking back when Rafa got appointed, and even Mata's defensive work greatly improved. And Azpi not only became a starter, but an integral part of the squad. He played with increased confidence with each game. You can say that was inevitable, but that's just a bit cynical, imo. GTFO