I would go Pope Trippier Botman Burn Targett Guimares Joelinton Willock Almiron St Maximin Wilson I wouldn't have Fraser anywhere near the team. He doesn't do anything particularly well.
Ah one of Lawro's favourite clichés! Sadly crowd noise ain't gonna cut it against Haarland and De Bruyne! Obviously everyone expects us to lose this, so anything is a bonus. We lost 0-4 in thr fixture last year and Clark was horrific, that was something of a turning point and we vastly improved after that. I just want to see progress from that hideous home performance last season so we can see how much the team has improved, ie actually make an effort and don't get walked all over.
This is the game where we spring the secret surprise - the double pivot. We'll go 4-2-3-1, with the Samba boys side by side and our new superpower - ASM as a 10, with Almiron and Fraser right and left and Wilson up top. Targett comes back in and Botman announces himself on the world stage with an imperious performance. Burn comes on for ASM to shore it up with us 2-0 up, as we then go 5-4-1 to see out a famous win. Nick Pope will of course keep another clean sheet. I know all this because even a simpleton knows standing toe-to-toe in a 4-3-3 against City and their 4-3-3 is madness and doomed to fail.
A win and a draw has taken any pressure off this game, an expected loss and it's not a terrible start to the season. 1-1
Lovely goal De Bruyne got the other day, keep Haaland and De Bruyne quiet and we'll win this, City always have a blip and think it's our turn for it!
I agree I think we have to change formation to give us the best chance of a positive result. Only thing is I'm not sure about dropping Willock as I think he's quite smart in the press. I'd quite like Howe to keep Maxi back and tell him look you're not being benched, I need you to come on and make an impact. I think we should try and be smart without going negative.
Agreed. But in reality we’re trying to score against city with the same 3 or 4 attackers who couldn’t lay a glove on Brighton. Easy defeat, but hopefully another shove towards opening the chequebook. Maybe we could even “prepare a bid” that has a chance of being accepted.
Thought our abject display upfront came from totally losing the midfield battle on Saturday. It more closely resembled a Rafa or Bruce era game because of that. Not sure whether we abandoned the high press for this game or they were just too good in midfield to allow us to do that. They certainly load their midfield though to the detriment of strikers so we may have just been overrun. Suspect our midfield will be treated similarly on Saturday. However even if we drop St Maximin and add another worker bee in there they will still dominate. Our best course of action is to give the ball to St Maximin and tell him to keep hold of it for as long as possible.
