Team for City?

Krul
Simpson
Colo
Saylor
Raylor
Guthrie
Gosling
Cabaye
Jonas
HBA
Ba

4-4-1-1.

 

IMO we should play a 4-5-1:

Krul
Simmo - Saylor - Collo - Raylor
Ben Arfa - Gosling - Guthrie - Cabaye - Jonas
Ba​

With a 5 man midfield Ben Arfa will be given more lisence to get forward, and if he gets caught out positionally Gosling can move across to cover.

I wouldn't want to play either Dan G on the wing as they are too static, and Santon needs to be eased in and starting out of position away from home against Man City isn't exactly easy. People also mentioned moving Raylor out there but I don't see the point in tinkering with the leagues best defence.

I would bring on Shola for the last 15 minutes for a midfielder if we are losing as he is actually quite a handful when he comes off the bench. Hopefully none of our CM's get injured as letting Perch/Smith loose on the team would be disasterous. Silva and co. would make them look like idiots with the way they dive in.

 

I wouldnt mind this, just dont see us setting up that way with Pardew's insistence than Ben Arfa is a number 10. If we played a 4-4-1-1 with the same players he could drift wide anyway and effectively play the same system.