We are welcoming Man City at Home today. With United and Spurs hardly relevant these days, we had got a new enemy and MLS made sure to remove your doubts about it with his Haaland celebration after scoring one last season. Today – it’s going to be the continuation of that.
Pep has lost some of his gems recently and has been trying to fix it. He hasn’t find a solution yet, but even at his worst, he can find a way to win. We have got two tasks today, to not let him win and because we are going for the title, to make sure we walk out of the game with 3 points. If you can’t beat the City or Liverpool at home, you don’t expect to win the league.
I was furious last week when Mikel picked up a midfield of Merino, Zubimendi and Rice against Athelti. We won the game but it was too slow in the transition and it took an individual brilliance of Martinelli to break the deadlock. Mikel has chosen the same midfield again today, and that’s the Mourinho’s way of handling Pep. I can understand the feeling that not losing it today is important to keep the confidence running in boys, but it doesn’t mean I agree with it.
If you gonna be best, you gotta take out the best. You can’t do that by going all defensive. We have got Eze, who is a natural Odegaard’s replacement, we have Nwaneri who was kept and given a new contract for that very position and yet, we go with two and a half defensive midfielders if not three.
That’s bonkers!
Anyways, Saka and Martinelli are on bench with Eze. Again, seeing Trossard doesn’t make sense ahead of Marts. Against City, you want to create chaos and who’s better than the Brazillian for it?
Gyokeres retains his place, at least Mikel didn’t go for an injured Havertz ahead of him, because hey, not losing is more important that winning these days. Saliba makes his way back to the team, so hopefully we would be able to contain Haaland today.
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It’s still too early for the hype but with 5 wins in 5 games, Liverpool at rocking at the top. We need to be as close to them as possible because at some point, they will run out of the luck (like we did in the past couple times) and we would be able to capitalize it. City will eventually pick their 10 games to go unbeaten at some point in the season.
We are going in the game with some positives. We haven’t lost to City in our last 4 games winning 2 of them and they have lost both of the visits to Arsenal recently. Lets hope we add another win today to these stats.
A very short one today but I will be available during the game. Cheers
That line up doesn’t fill me with confidence but City have been inconsistent – their new keeper could make a big difference.
Why not put Eze (or Nwaneri for that matter) into midfield? Best way to defend against City is to give them something to think about.
Right, good luck scoring 2 now with that midfield support.
What is the fucking point of starting that midfield and having an “inverted” full back if you’re going to be cut through like that?
this reeks of MA getting a tongue lashing from Tross’s new agent…we all know that he should have been sent packing last summer, but once again MA doubled down on a plan that was misguided from the get-go…clearly assurances were given at the time of his re-upping, which will make things extra crispy off the pitch should we ever experience a bad patch of results…what’s going to happen when Saka’s ready to start again and Noni gets starts on the left??? our roster construction.is so nonsensical considering MA’s preferred formation and tactics…at some point we have to put the whole win in spite of the manager narrative to bed and actually get someone who’s actually capable of achieving the intended goals
TRVL
Having a strong squad is good having the number of wide attackers we do just causes problems with people not getting enough match time.
Mikel wanted it a 0-0, similar to the Liverpool game. And he os getting the similar result.
Marc
Or, the manager should tell some of them that they are FA and Carabao cup material.
We should have both Nwaneri and Eze in the midfield. I don’t care if it’s the Mikel’s favorite and a 100m signing needs to sit on bench for it.
Marc—you raise some good points, unfortunately our little MIT has devised a plan that’s far more about beating the bottom dwelling bus sitters than those with goals in mind…that’s where.this whole cross heavy/set piece wet dream shit emerged from…this tactical simpleton can’t chew gum and walk at the same fucking time
It is already 1-0 down . Mikel should stand on his head for a different perspective.
Setpiece routine might not work given their keeper has a massive reach
at some point we’re just going to start taking it to the corner flag then try to kick it off the leg of the closest defender
Saka is the only one who might manage to go through. City is coming back en masse to defend , maybe a tactic to address their defensive iffiness
Hoopah
Don’t give him ideas yeah, we have 1 more DM in Norgaard on the bench. He can replace Gyokeres.
If both Saka and Marts are available, we should gone with them with atleast Eze in the midfield.. what a mess..
Don’t worry lads Arteta has a cunning plan.
Don’t make any changes until the 70th minute and hope we get a corner.
“at some point we’re just going to start taking it to the corner flag then try to kick it off the leg of the closest defender”
Who the fuck leaked Arteta’s cunning plan?
B Silva remains a cunt for another week.
Ambarish
No need to rush Saka back and just get him injured again. Not starting two of Martinelli, Eze or Nwaneri is criminal.
Marc
If, because he has been warming up now. Madueke is just doing fine, Marts and Eze should have been on rhe pitch, can’t argue with that.
let’s face it, MA’s whole offensive scheme is predicated on the skillsets of Gabs, Rice and Havertz…the first 2 based on set pieces and the latters’ ability to get into the box unmarked and the latter by the way in which we have no directness in attack, which is why we’ve seen VG coming so deep…we don’t do fuck-all when it comes to trying to counter with pace or getting our best players into shooting positions on their preferred feet