kellzfresh

If he keeps this form up, it'll happen sooner or later.

I pray derby get into the EPL next season. That would be perfect for bamford

Except for last season manutd 2013 and hernandez first season united 2011, All past epl winners in the last 10 years including arsenal invincibles are better than mancity and will beat them to the title. All this talk like they've reached barcelona/bayern status with no weakness is petty talk. They need glory before we can acknowledge them.

I agree they are not great as before. Messi was football god in their peak but injuries have slowed him down so far, when he gets back to form people will fear them again. They've changed their all out high pressing to more of a zonal pressing where they come back a bit deeper. Before they don't let opponents make more than 7 passes becos of the constant high pressure on you, so they were like dortmund with perfect possession play. But their possession still tires out opponents especially when they make the CM run around all game. Its more like how spain NT do, they hold aimless possession waiting for you to come out but tiring you out and ending up going all out in the 2nd half when opposition can't run as fast or cover as much space. Point I'm trying to make is their not the same level as before, (which was arguably the top 3 best ever footballing side and best in that 2009-2012 era) but they still end up being the 2nd best club in the world right now.

I couldn't understand how pple thought mancity will beat barca. Only bayern style pressing, parking the bus or holding possession better than them can beat barca. Mancity don't use any of those styles and can't beat barca at keeping possession. Barca had a penalty for handball by clichy turned down in the first half. Barca had a legit goal by pique disallowed. Pellegrini should shut up, the pressure after so much mind games from Jose has gotten to him.

They stood no chance to me. Its simple, any team that is used to holding possession and dominating against even big teams, will have to change their style and fall short when they meet a better ball hugger than them, A.k.a barca.

I can see why zlatan keeps him on the right. Zlatan has 34 goals in 34 appearances. 41 goals in 41 apps for club and country With 14 assists and goals out of nothing created by his sheer technique, The dude is a fuckin beast

Exactly!! Still puzzled how amateurs like Henrique don't still get this!!

We had those situations before, but we were a team that was used to that. So our stamina will be much better than a team that did that for the first time in their life.Infact our tactics is purely counter attacking so it was something we are used to. I know that the 10men situation helped to get them tired but barca style will always get any opponent tired in the 2nd half, as long as u have to chase the ball. That's why they score a lot of goals in the 2nd half, check their stats. The constant possession makes opponents mentally tired bcos of so much concentration needed to defend. And another thing is that their style makes opponents get carded a lot. I saw a stat that in europe, barca hve gotten their opponents red carded 26 times which is the highest out of any team. These things: physical and mental tiredness, cards always happen. Curse you guardiola, the only way to beat this system is to press perfectly like bayern, keep the ball more than barca, or stay in the 18box like RDM. Any other way is mostly hoping on pure luck.

They played well, defended far better than I thought. Kompany was a monster. But they only stayed in the game that long because they were conserved for long periods, they were always going to tire sooner or later, give away fouls and collect cards because they are chasing the ball, when they came out they were opened up. And infact a lot of nice barca plays leading to close offside calls went mancitys way (rightfully of course). I was more impressed with them with 10men actually. But that 2nd barca goal was just evidence of how tired city had gotten by then.

Like I said earlier, no chance for city against barca. They hold the ball, make u run till you get tired, then punish u.

That's a striker that score goals out of nothing. How we miss drogba

Read my previous posts. I said psg won't sell unless they don't want him again. So if he is unhappy he has to live with it or beg PSG to let him go

But he is better than vilanova and has done a lot of tactical switches. Notably against real where he put messi on the right and ruined ancelloti's tactics of playing ramos in the middle

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I'm the freshest!!!

All my friends thinks city will win... I'm I the only one thinking barcelona will beat them?

Lol

Exactly. Perfect analysis of the game. For some strange reason some people didn't think city looked fresher than us. The mere fact that city were pressing better than us(were the best in the league at pressing opposition) is evidence of fatigue. And mikel was too slow to keep up with city's pace in possesion. Ramires too had stinker and exactly as u said has had a terrible 2014 so far. That's why I said earlier we missed luiz pressing energy and quick releases to hazard like he did in our earlier match. People hav underestimated the impact that had on the overall outcome of the match

Because messi is not on top form. Wenger said the same thing some days ago but watch how pple criticize jose for this

I understand what you mean by how they adapted to our play. But, 1. The simple fact that they were better than us at pressing,(our own game) was sheer evidence of our tiredness. If they press us, we should have pressed back, but we ended up looking far slower out of possession than when we faced them in the league. 2. They used that tactics against us successfully because, we didn't expect that gameplan, and we were couldn't press them back like we usually do(again evidence of tiredness) We are not even half as creative as barcelona in possession. If they use that tactics on barca, barca will still carve them open with that tactics(this is what I'm trying to get you to understand). Their pressing is no where near as impressive as what bayern did last season and they certainly won't park the bus like RDM. So chances are barcelona will create far more chances than mancity will and they are clinical finishers themselves. Mancity are used to holding the ball, they will have to run, chase, mark, double mark messi, for a full 90mins. They are not going to be experts at something they havnt done often this season so that's their disadvantage. Their only advantage is that they are the most clinical team in the world now and need few chances to score goals. So they would score.

That is another reason. Our finishing is the worst among the top half teams. But from mourinho's tactics ivanovic is the attacking fullback while the leftback sits deeper. When teams refuse to come out, we should let both fullbacks hug the flanks especially on hazards side where people are now triple marking him. We'll be able to break up any defence when lampards distance shooting from the pivot is added on top of that.

What jose should do is to read the game plan of the opposition early and know whether they have any plans of stepping out of their half, and let more players join the attack as early as possible (30th mins) Especially letting the leftback take some markers off hazard and overload the left flank so that hazard can be more free.

Pellegrini could be naïve and play 2 strikers and barcelona will kill them in the middle. Against us, they let us have the ball in the 2nd half and it worked for them, but that's exactly what barca are suited for, city players will run, till they are tired. They are used to having the ball, so they are not prepared to chase it, imagine yaya chasing iniesta around They'll be far better than us on the ball, I don't think using our game will be the best example, because we were playing so slow and clueless in possession. And if they couldn't handle hazard 2 weeks ago when we were fully fresh, they should get ready for one little 4 time world best player. City only have a chance because they are very clinical.

The only thing with teams that let us have the ball is that we should play lampard for goal threat from the middle and we should find a way to allow BOTH fullbacks to attack without exposing us defensively.

Well even if they would be focused in the league, they are unlucky to get drawn against barca and bayern. They don't stand a chance in the tie anyways imo. Possession football from barcelona renders city's sexy football useless. So I want them to be battered while they are going out, so I can have a laugh.