Barca draws Man City

[big_man]

It just struck me how similar City are to last season's Bayern team. 2 physical powerhouses in the middle of the pitch with Yaya and Fernandinho, great thread on set pieces, fast counterattacks, different goalscorers all over the pitch. Big difference is that they aren't as disciplined and hardworking which results in defensive frailness. They concede too many chances (and Joe Hart sucks). But they could easily change that for the odd big game. Against Barca everyone is always motivated. Dangerous team. Very much looking forward to this. If Barca beat them and beat them convincingly it will give the team a huge boost for the rest of the season as there aren't much more dangerous teams out there right now. I don't think this current Real Madrid side are much better for example if at all.

I don't know man, I think you're giving them far too much credit with the Bayern comparison. They are much worse defensively, and their midfield is nowhere near Bayern's in terms of defensive stability. That Bayern limited Barca to like 4 shots (off and on) target. Teams like Swansea on the other hand give City the run around. I count about 7 or 8 shots to swansea already in this game, if they could finish they'd be 2-1 up right now.
Yaya Toure is a defensive liability for them and Fernadinho is like a one man show in central midfield for them. They can get away with that in the PL but against a team like Barca they'll get dominated in the middle. At this stage of this season last year Bayern conceded something like 8 goals in all competitions. City are nearing 30 already and as you said, they give chances away, the Bayern team of last year was the complete opposite of that. They are quite good in attack though.

 

[The Observer]

True, should have probably said "like Bayern when attacking". Their defense is more like Tito's Barca.

 

[FCBarca]

Yaya's bad back or age catch up with him from time to time...A big reason why Fernandinho's effectiveness is muted when Yaya is exposed defensively - someone has to stay deeper and between the two of them, it should be Fernandinho...But then City lose that edge he brings going forward

 

[Howes]

Aguero will be back it time for Barca game

 

[serghei]

Aguero will be back it time for Barca game

Good. I want us to beat them with their best men on field.

 

[Messi_Goal]

To win the Champions League this season I think we need to sign a cb before the transfer window shuts.
I think Bartra will eventually be good enough but not just yet,but I think that is irrelevant because Tata will play Mascherano at cb.

 

[transition]

Manchester City can keep possession as well. Especially when all the midfield maestro's are playing, i.e. Fernandinho, Toure, Nasri and Negredo.

The formation they us is 4-2-2-2 . The fullbacks fly forward to create width. The wingers come inside to congest the midfield. The strikers can drop deep but can also drift wide. For example Aguero can drift wide and play as a winger.

I imagine that Barcelona will want to keep the ball and push City into their own half. I think it is a bad idea because Man City have added a lethal counter attack to their war chest this season.

I think City will win the first leg 4-1. And win the second leg 3-2.

 

[alex123]

in my opinion, i don't fear city players but i fear their coach's tactics, Pelligrini is a genius and he knows us very well. He used to create problems for us with teams like :"malaga and villareal" , so i think tata need to put his touch on this game and he did that against real madrid, when he put messi on the right so Ramos job in midfield got wasted because there wasn't messi in the middle. Visca Barca !!!

 

[Ghosting]

Manchester City can keep possession as well. Especially when all the midfield maestro's are playing, i.e. Fernandinho, Toure, Nasri and Negredo.

The formation they us is 4-2-2-2 . The fullbacks fly forward to create width. The wingers come inside to congest the midfield. The strikers can drop deep but can also drift wide. For example Aguero can drift wide and play as a winger.

I imagine that Barcelona will want to keep the ball and push City into their own half. I think it is a bad idea because Man City have added a lethal counter attack to their war chest this season.

I think City will win the first leg 4-1. And win the second leg 3-2.

They won't play 2 up top against us, they didn't against Chelsea or Liverpool, they did it against Bayern and got dominated in midfield. Their fullbacks push forward against other teams but they haven't faced a team with the quality of Neymar and Alexis on the wings which will drive them back. Saying they keep possession well is redundant lots of teams keep possession well until they come up against the tiki-taka

But yes they are a great team, but if we play our best we will come out on top over the two legs.

 

[big_man]

I'm pretty sure they'll go on to win this game, by my God...their defence is so average(Yup, even with Kompany and Zabaleta-the two players missing from this game), anybody that thinks we have an average defence needs to watch City regularly for some perspective.
Their midfield is also mediocre defensively, they concede so many chances, this is against a 2nd division team as well.This is with them fielding 6 or 7 players that will start against us.
They are quite a good attacking outfit, as is typical of a team that is basically a "best of the rest" La Liga team with sprinkles of PL players. The more I watch them the more optimistic I am of the tie, as long as we don't get complacent.

 

[big_man]

Manchester City can keep possession as well. Especially when all the midfield maestro's are playing, i.e. Fernandinho, Toure, Nasri and Negredo.

The formation they us is 4-2-2-2 . The fullbacks fly forward to create width. The wingers come inside to congest the midfield. The strikers can drop deep but can also drift wide. For example Aguero can drift wide and play as a winger.


I imagine that Barcelona will want to keep the ball and push City into their own half. I think it is a bad idea because Man City have added a lethal counter attack to their war chest this season.

I think City will win the first leg 4-1. And win the second leg 3-2.

I'll put my house on the line that City aren't winning any game against Barca 4-1, absolutely no way. On the evidence available, the opposite is more likely to happen.

 

[Trickykid]

Us losing 4-1 away to City and 3-2 at home? Holy shit, that's the dumbest thing I've read on this forum in a long, long time, and considering the general level in here these days, that does say quite a lot.

 

[Ghosting]

I'm pretty sure they'll go on to win this game, by my God...their defence is so average(Yup, even with Kompany and Zabaleta-the two players missing from this game), anybody that thinks we have an average defence needs to watch City regularly for some perspective.
Their midfield is also mediocre defensively, they concede so many chances, this is against a 2nd division team as well.This is with them fielding 6 or 7 players that will start against us.
They are quite a good attacking outfit, as is typical of a team that is basically a "best of the rest" La Liga team with sprinkles of PL players. The more I watch them the more optimistic I am of the tie, as long as we don't get complacent.

Indeed when we were first drawn against them I was very pessimistic but since then I have watched most their games and they are very average defensively and they are a pretty much we will score more than you team. Of course on the flip they will probably play very defensively against us and whilst you can say they aren't good enough to contain our players we have seen many times before however bad your team is parked buses can work wonders, especially if we aren't at our best.

 

[big_man]

Indeed when we were first drawn against them I was very pessimistic but since then I have watched most their games and they are very average defensively and they are a pretty much we will score more than you team. Of course on the flip they will probably play very defensively against us and whilst you can say they aren't good enough to contain our players we have seen many times before however bad your team is parked buses can work wonders, especially if we aren't at our best.

Agreed, despite me being pretty confident, I still think we'll need to be very near our best to get through relatively comfortably and I don't think it'll be a walk in the park. I don't think they're a team we can beat at 70%. That is why I mentioned complacency, but they're a strong enough team to keep the players hungry and that is the silver lining for me.

 

[Djab]

:tata1: They can't win the game against BBR. How they will win us 4_1 ???