The loss to Cardiff City exposed some glaring weaknesses in Man City's defence and I hope SB will be preparing a game plan to exploit them. As Fraizer Campbell showed they are slow at the back, notably Lescott and at LB, where Bellamy had a field day, and very vulnerable to speed and long through balls. Without Kompany they were also very poor in defending corners, and FC again took advantage of this. If we play the right formation to exploit these weaknesses we could get another surprise result. Brady, as he showed again today, can be very effective when pushing up as a striker. Aluko also has the speed, skill, and eye for goal to cause trouble. Play them both up front. Elmo can beat their LB as the 34 year old Bellamy did. Thudd is one of the best long ball passers in the Prem. Davies is a better header on corners/set pieces than Campbell. Our back line and GK are as good as, if not better than Cardiff, and have not allowed a goal in the last 270 minutes. So a point (or more) is quite possible IMO. My line up would be Graham Rosenior Chester Davies Figueroa Elmohamedy Livermore Huddlestone Dudgeon Aluko Brady Harper McShane Bruce Meyler Boyd Graham Proschwitz
Tactical naivety by Bruce? FC led the line for Cardiff on Sunday with relative ease. Zabaleta was quoted as saying something along the lines of "He was very strong" lol. We need a pacey attacking threat which unfortunately I haven't seen in DG yet.
Good team that i'd go for the same just one change, although I like the cofidence of Graham in goal it would be harsh to drop McGregor Didn't notice the earlier post
I think he'll want a player who can hold the ball up and take the pressure off, though if we're playing reasonably well, I wouldn't be surprised to see Brady moved into attack.
And DG can do that? I wouldn't have too many qualms if we were talking about Sagbo however I don't think DG is suited to a lone striker role. Cardiff built their attacks up well at the weekend. Their midfield were pulling the strings and that is something I feel we can emulate with Thudd and Livermore. Man City will be concious not to fall to a 2nd consecutive defeat, and if we can put them on the back foot with our pace from the off, even better.
Cracknell Rosenior Bruce McShane Dudgeon Jaraldo-Martin Townsend Meyler Wilson (Dougie) Boyd McLean There's no point is risking injuries for our top players in this nothing game and it's another opportunity for some of our fringe players to get valuable match time.
Or any points. We've beaten Manchester City before with, in my opinion, a much worse team, so I see no reason why we can't get something on Saturday. I'm not sure one up front is a good idea; we don't get into the box enough and our strikers tend to drop deep, meaning we have nobody to attack crosses. Aluko almost plays CM sometimes; I'd like to see him stay in the final third and link the play between Huddlestone and Graham. This'll be the final game that Bruce will be able to see us play in before the transfer window closes. I'm willing to bet that it'll have a great bearing on whether there's any deadline day flurries.
My previous comment was tongue in cheek, however. Yes we have vastly improved, but so have they. When we beat them at the KC, their starting 11 was Given, Bridge, Zabeleta, Toure, Boyata, Ireland, Barry, De Jong, Adebayor, Tevez, Bellamy. A handful of them wouldn't even get into our team now (Given, Bridge, Boyata, Ireland) so I don't really see your point. Of course SB will field what he thinks is his strongest team, I just hope he is more daring and follows in Cardiff's footsteps, if we stay compact, they are certainly susceptible to the counter attack.
I hope that we can get the Tank Faye fit enough for 20mins off the bench on saturday. With Kompany out Man City are poor at the back. They would hate Faye and his powerful style from set pieces. Cardiff showed how to get at Man City and i think we can do something at the Etihad other than get slapped. The way that Zabelletta allowed FC 2 free headers was criminal at any level of football. Same team as Norwich for me apart from Meyler starting for Sagbo in a 4 - 5 - 1 formation. McGregor Elmohamady Chester Davies Figueroa Koren Huddlestone Livermore Meyler Brady Aluko.
I know it was tounge in cheek My point was that relatively speaking, their team at the time was much, much better than ours, in the same way it is now. Our squad has also vastly improved, so the same criteria are there, we just have to pull together. We even have a midfield talisman in Huddlestone! We do seem a tad vunerable on the counter; I don't envy whoever it is that'll have to mark David Silva.
id like us to start Aluko and Brady up front too.. I was happy when we signed Graham but his workrate in the first 2 games has been shocking,needs to earn a place with a bit of sweat first.
Cardiff won the game with two corners. Take those two corners out and they lost the game, so all this about Cardiff exposing their pace at the back using Campbell is a bit exaggerated. All we can do is play our best team and see what they can do.
