”Liar, liar your bum’s on fire”.
Many times have we heard our manager assert in pre-match press conferences prior to a Premier League fixture, just PRIOR to a Champions League game; that he’s only focusing on the next [Premier League] match…only for his actions to-later scream otherwise.
His last…shall I call it, “not entirely accurate statement” occurred prior to the Liverpool defeat; prior to the loss at Juventus.
Let us see, hey?
A Tuesday game-following doesn’t help…
Seeing as, in my opinion, Manuel Pellegrini DOES indeed have history of doing this; seeing as a home win
against Borussia Monchengladbach AND a Sevilla home win against table-toppers Juventus in
midweek-following will see us finish our Champions League group top and, therefore, potentially avoiding one of
the really ‘big guns’ in the ‘round of 16’…AND seeing as that game against the German side
is a Tuesday, just 77 hours and a few
minutes after our game at the Britannia Stadium
finishes; there’s a danger that ‘The Engineer’ will attempt to ‘do a Ben Turpin’, by having one eye on Tuesday night’s
game when selecting his team to face Mark Hughes’
men.
Don’t do it Manuel!
v Stoke City
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
4-1-4-1 come 4-5-1 come 4-3-3:
4-1-4-1 come 4-5-1 come 4-3-3:
____________________Bony_____________________
____________________Silva______________________
___________________________Toure______________
____________Fernando__________________________
______________________Hart_____________________
Notable absences: Pablo Zabaleta (injured), VincentKompany (injured), Eliaquim Mangala (suspended), Samir Nasri (injured), Sergio Aguero (injured).
Result? Very
brief, not-usual analysis here due to on-going family, health-related issues…
…some players on the bench having played 90+ minutes
against Hull City just 3-½ or
so days earlier; a trio, I think, of
mouth-watering attacking players behind Wilfried and if the scoreline suits
then expect key players to be replaced early’ish in the second half ahead of Tuesday night’s game; with a good
selection of decent replacements to choose from.
Tough ground for many and, in particular, us and in forecasted, very windy
conditions too. SO…play it on the floor, play to our potential and this, for me, is going to be a vital, 3 points away from home.
I cannot believe that you would not pick fernandinho and delph in a game when we will need high energy aggressive players. Also a city blogger you must claim
ReplyDeleteto having some knowledge re our team and every city fan I know understands yaya cannot play in a 2 man midfield due to his lack of energy and tactical discipline needed. We were murdered by Liverpool because of their mobile midfield that bypassed yaya and stoke are similar. Honestly mate that team you picked is poor.
Hi, thanks for commenting. Appreciated.
DeleteIf you were a regular reader you would know that I only ever do a 'Pellegrini predicted' line-up, which it is. It's not 'my 11'. Admittedly I forgot, on this rushed-occasion, to add the "Predicted line-up, subs and outcome" bit (now added - and please see my previous, pre-match posts for evidence of this).
Agree that we need the energy / strength 'in there'...asolutely. But what I would add with my PREDICTED line-up is that Yaya is in there as a '5 midfield'; certianly a 'midfield 3' at the very least with Silva.
Again, appreciate the input very much indeed and I hope you continue to read...