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[Carbonox]

Yvonne Strahovski get in my wheelbarrow.

 

[K1LLER7]

If we get stomped tomorrow I'm going straight to the City Store and buying a jersey with Europa League patches on. Even though we'll finish last in the group and not qualify.

Remember to get A.Rodwell on the back. Got to support city's best player

 

[Clegg]

City need to win all three matches to even stand a chance of qualifying from their group.

Can't see that happening tbh. Mancini knows that too.

That's why he's been stating the obvious.

Mancini writes off City's Champions League chances

 

[Salazar]

https://twitter.com/MUFC_FUCKWITS

oh my

 

[mocolostrocolos]

Xabi Alonso scouting for Real Madrid.

Maybe an old Liverpool pal?

 

[Kamakazie!]

Yeah he's been very consistent this year, seems to have his head screwed on now and isn't as rash as he was.

I think he is still 'rash' but he has better timing now so can make the tackles where before he would have ploughed their legs.

As for the could on Suarez. I agree it is a red for dangerous play, but there is not way he was trying to make contct with the player. He clearly pulls out as the halls goes past. If he wanted to do damage he would have left his foot high.
Slo mo replays for these things are so de deceiving be side they give the impression that the ball was long gone when often it is. Split second eg. The bad Scholes foul last year?! where he was widely condemned but intact would have would wen caught the same way himself if he was a quarter of a second earlier.

 

[dc89]

City have everything it takes to be a top

Spoiler

massive

European club.

The players
The owners
The stadium
The facilities
The plans for the academy

The only thing we're missing is a manager who has proven ability to compete and win in Europe. I want to give Mancini a chance, but when the top brass realise there is just one key ingredient missing who's to say they won't give him that chance.

Soriano & Txikixiki probably have a plan already!

 

[mocolostrocolos]

Manchester Txiki.

 

[fuenf]

City have everything it takes to be a top

Spoiler

massive

European club.

The players
The owners
The stadium
The facilities
The plans for the academy

The only thing we're missing is a manager who has proven ability to compete and win in Europe. I want to give Mancini a chance, but when the top brass realise there is just one key ingredient missing who's to say they won't give him that chance.

Soriano & Txikixiki probably have a plan already!

Too bad Manchester already got a massive club like that.

 

[KidA Seven]

City need to win all three matches to even stand a chance of qualifying from their group.

Can't see that happening tbh. Mancini knows that too.

That's why he's been stating the obvious.

Mancini writes off City's Champions League chances

"Chelsea tried for 10 years to win the Champions League. They were probably the best team in Europe for 10 years and they won it after 10 years, probably when they didn't deserve to"

So much fail in 1 quote. Just shut the fuck up Mancini.

 

[Ushojax]

City have everything it takes to be a top

Spoiler

massive

European club.

The players
The owners
The stadium
The facilities
The plans for the academy

The empty seats

 

[Wilbur]

The players

dat rodwell

The owners

dat oil money

The stadium

dat empty seats

The facilities

dat nice toilet that will aid our champions league run

The plans for the academy

dat irrelevance on the next 20 champions leagues so therefore dat manager doesn't count

 

[Wes]

I'd be entirely alright with seeing Bent leave, which is the sad/scary part. I said it last year that I thought we could part with him when we were struggling as well. I really do love Benteke and think he is going to be a superduperstar. More so than Bannan.

I think Bannan and El Ahmadi as our holding midfielders would be great, with Westwood and Delph in rotation. I don't rate Herd much, but think he could be a good FB. I don't think he is great on the ball, but he works hard, and isn't terrible at marking.

I didn't think Ireland played that well on Saturday, but maybe I only noticed the plays where he gave the ball away, which I counted at least 4 times that happened. Obviously he fits that central attacking role for our team though.

Who plays the left side of the field for us though? Agbonlahor? N'Zogbia? Holman? Doesn't N'Zogbia prefer the right side, which is where Albrighton plays? I guess Gabby and Charlie can probably play on either side of the pitch, but I don't think Albrighton can play on the left. And I think Holman can slot into any of the three spots across that attacking line.

Does that make our depth at striker go Benteke, Weimann, Agbonlahor (assuming Bent is gone of course).

I still think if we could find a way to fit Benteke and Bent up front we could have a pretty lethal attack. Benteke wins everything that comes near him, and Bent will be able to poach plenty of things Benteke heads down to him.

EDIT: I forgot to address our backline.

I think Vlaar and Clark is a strong central partnership, and, for now, Dunne is a good enough player to rotate when we need him, but I really think we need to purchase another centerback. I also think Lichaj is still too raw to be seeing regular time, and I hate seeing him start (which makes me sad because, you know, American, Chicagoan, etc.). I really do like Lowton and Bennett though.

I know we haven't seen much of Bent + Benteke together but even though Benteke wins all those headers Bent never seems to work enough to get on the end of them - something which Gabby does do.

I think this'll be the team we see against United:

-------------------- Guzan --------------------

Lowton ------ Vlaar ---- Clark ------ Bennett

-------------- KEA -------- Bannan -----------

Holman ---------- Ireland -------- Agbonlahor

------------------- Benteke --------------------

I thought our midfield looked a lot better without Holman in but there's no denying his work rate and we'll likely need that against United.

I like Gabby cutting in from the left as he can get a shot away and he has the recovery speed to get back after pushign up alongside Benteke. Also he and Benteke seem to work well.

As for January I think we need a centre back and a right winger (I'm not fond of Albrighton)
.

 

[Wilbur]

Ireland looked good from what I saw the other day, I think he needs to be a regular starter. He's a confidence player, and he was great at City a few years ago and unfairly pushed out due to the money.

 

[Kenka]

dat empty seats



dat nice toilet that will aid our champions league run



dat irrelevance on the next 20 champions leagues so therefore dat manager doesn't count

Pardon me but Etihad is far from being empty. Transfermarkt tells me the average attendance is above 90%. Or am I missing something, anything?

 

[Slizz]

Pardon me but Etihad is far from being empty. Transfermarkt tells me the average attendance is above 90%. Or am I missing something, anything?

 

[Kamakazie!]

So much fail in 1 quote. Just shut the fuck up Mancini.

Someone must have added the 0 by accident. Or maybe the 1 if I'm not being generous.

 

[Hixx]

Do you have any pics of OT when Man United played the skunks, just for the sake of fairness?

 

[Clegg]

Lots of clubs report inaccurate attendance figures.

Eg they count the number of season ticket holders as part of matchday attendance even though not all of them would actually be at the match.

And then you have people that buy tickets for the game and don't bother showing up. And then simply, people just not buying tickets.

City especially seem to have a problem selling tickets for CL games.

 

[Slizz]

Do you have any pics of OT when Man United played the skunks, just for the sake of fairness?

Coventry end of the match, and I have no idea what time any of the pics I posted were lol.


Bottom pic I added is a PL game I'm sure as they are playing Villa.

 

[Wilbur]

Do you have any pics of OT when Man United played the skunks, just for the sake of fairness?

All I could really find

Not representative of the ground and there might be fuckloads missing but hey

 

[Hixx]

Coventry end of the match, and I have no idea what time any of the pics I posted were lol.


Bottom pic I added is a PL game I'm sure as they are playing Villa.

The Villa game was in the League Cup.

 

[Freewheelin']

Coventry, and I have no idea what time any of the pics I posted were lol.


Bottom pic I added is a PL game I'm sure as they are playing Villa.

Nope, that was the COC game this season when Villa won

 

[Hixx]

All I could really find

Not representative of the ground and there might be fuckloads missing but hey

You're right. It's not representative. Whole sections of the ground were empty.

 

[Wilbur]

You're right. It's not representative. Whole sections of the ground were empty.

we are the new emptyhad

 

[Arnie]

Just rewatched the highlights, Jonjo and Sterling really should've scored, can't complain too much though, inexperience shows. Happy with the overall performance, we absolutely dominated Newcastle whilst still creating a host of decent chances. Suarez was phenomenal once again; like I said a couple of weeks ago, he's stepped up a gear massively this season, and he's the second best striker in the league on current form.

 

[Slizz]

There are 3 commercials on air in the US that have songs from FIFA13 in it. Trips me out every time I hear one and now I'm bout to play some FIFA13.

 

[bud]

The plans for the academy

how does this even matter when you keep begging for new signings?

 

[dc89]

dat nice toilet that will aid our champions league run.

Don't get me started. Or I'll post every God damn facility we have in a PR fashion that would make your eyes water son.

 

[Wilbur]

Cleverley > Wilshere confirmed

They have been billed as the future of the England team, the talented pair who can run the midfield for Roy Hodgson when Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard finally hang up their boots, and on Saturday Tom Cleverley and Jack Wilshere went head-to-head in the lunchtime kick-off at Old Trafford.

It offered an intriguing glimpse of the future of the national team, and could be the defining clash of United versus Arsenal in years to come.
Wilshere, in only his second game back from a 17-month injury lay-off, played a more advanced role for Arsenal.

His average position was just over the half-way line, whereas Cleverley had the majority of his touches in his own half.

Both made around 40 passes during the game, but Wilshere hit a far greater proportion of his passes in a forward direction - 27 per cent to Cleverley's 12 per cent.

Although it may be reflection of the shape of the game, in which a comfortable United side enjoyed the lions share of possession and territory and defended their lead by passing the ball around the pitch, Cleverley also hit double the number of passes backwards than Wilshere.

Most tellingly, Wilshere did not hit a single long ball (any pass 35 yards or longer) before he was sent off in the 69th minute, while in Cleverley's 61 minutes on the pitch before he was substituted, he hit 17 per cent of his passes over 35 yards or more.

The United midfielder was the most accurate passer on the pitch - hitting his intended target with an astonishing 98 per cent of his passes. Wilshere, meanwhile, hit the target with only 89 per cent.

But neither player made single pass that set up a goal-scoring opportunity.

Defensively, Cleverley made three tackles in the game (and attempted nine) while Wilshere failed to make single tackle (and still managed to get himself sent off).

In possession, the Arsenal tyro lost the ball an alarming 11 times, whereas Cleverley protected it far more effectively, only losing the ball twice.

England's new Gerrard-Lampard axis? Let's just hope they can play together.

 

[Clegg]

It's very strange seeing United score from corners. We rarely scored from them last year.

And even Evra is scoring goals now. Before this season he'd only ever scored three goals for us. He's scored twice already.

 

[Awesome Animals]

I know we haven't seen much of Bent + Benteke together but even though Benteke wins all those headers Bent never seems to work enough to get on the end of them - something which Gabby does do.

I think this'll be the team we see against United:

-------------------- Guzan --------------------

Lowton ------ Vlaar ---- Clark ------ Bennett

-------------- KEA -------- Bannan -----------

Holman ---------- Ireland -------- Agbonlahor

------------------- Benteke --------------------

I thought our midfield looked a lot better without Holman in but there's no denying his work rate and we'll likely need that against United.

I like Gabby cutting in from the left as he can get a shot away and he has the recovery speed to get back after pushign up alongside Benteke. Also he and Benteke seem to work well.

As for January I think we need a centre back and a right winger (I'm not fond of Albrighton)
.

I like that squad. I'm not sure how I feel about Albrighton. I think you're right, and I feel like he doesn't impact the game very often. I think we could use both a left and right winger, a centerback, and a big, burly, strong, mother-fucking central midfielder. Someone who can't do anything but come in late and clear opponents out of the way. A Nigel De Jong type,

 

[dc89]

And don't you guys get me started on empty seats. United STILL haven't sold all their season tickets.

And I've never seen Wembley empty as I did the fateful day. Same goes with Old Trafford at 1-4.

 

[Clegg]

dc, United haven't sold out their entire season ticket allocation for years.

This isn't a new thing. It isn't a United in crisis thing either. It's just the way things are.

 

[dc89]

dc, United haven't sold out their entire season ticket allocation for years.

This isn't a new thing.

bu bu bu bu bu there was a 1 million waiting list.

 

[Clegg]

bu bu bu bu bu there was a 1 million waiting list.

And you're fool enough to actually believe that.

 

[Wilbur]

City can't sell a 40,000 seater out for Champions League games in their debut season in the competition, taking shit from them of all clubs on empty seats is hilarious.

 

[Kamakazie!]

Cleverley > Wilshere confirmed

Where is that from?
Stats aren't everything but I really think this demonstrates why Cleverly needs someone like Anderson alongside him to get the best out of him ala early last season.
He is a neat, efficient passer with great ball retention that can calm things down moving out of defence. But any strong midfield with him needs a dynamic more attack focussed player alongside.

 

[Bo-Locks]

Season tickets for OT are sold out. I know that for a fact.

Anecdotally, I always hear commercials on the radio for tickets to the Emptyhad (just today I heard a radio commercial for tickets available on the gate for the Ajax game tomorrow), while I occasionally hear commercials for VIP tickets to OT (today I also heard a radio commercial for OT VIP tickets that would make a great gift for Christmas). That sums up the difference in the moronic debate about seats and stadia.

 

[Wilbur]

Where is that from?
Stats aren't everything but I really think this demonstrates why Cleverly needs someone like Anderson alongside him to get the best out of him ala early last season.
He is a neat, efficient passer with great ball retention that can calm things down moving out of defence. But any strong midfield with him needs a dynamic more attack focussed player alongside.

Daily Mail. I'm tongue in cheek about him being better than Wilshere. I'd like to see a regular 3 man midfield of Anderson/Cleverley/Carrick at some point

 

[AndresON777]

Emptyhead sounds hot

 

[Salazar]

Daily Mail. I'm tongue in cheek about him being better than Wilshere.

Pillock.

 

[Kyoufu]

City can't sell a 40,000 seater out for Champions League games in their debut season in the competition, taking shit from them of all clubs on empty seats is hilarious.

I do find it pretty funny a Man City fan is giving a club shit for not filling seats.

So instead, as a Newcastle fan, let me laugh at you both for not being able to fill seats.

 

[Wilbur]

Pillock.

My tribalism does not run that far unfortunately

I do find it pretty funny a Man City fan is giving a club shit for not filling seats.

So instead, as a Newcastle fan, let me laugh at you both for not being able to fill seats.

Fair enough haha!

 

[Awesome Animals]

Emptyhead sounds hot

Sounds like an alternative/hipster/indie/metal band.

 

[K1LLER7]

Emptyhead sounds hot

Stop falling for DC

 

[Wes]

I think we could use both a left and right winger, a centerback, and a big, burly, strong, mother-fucking central midfielder. Someone who can't do anything but come in late and clear opponents out of the way. A Nigel De Jong type,

Whilst I agree we need to get better at that position, for now at least that is KEA and Westwood. We wont be buying anyone else for that role. The money, what little of there there is, has to go elsewhere than central midfield currently. That position is third on the list of needs at the moment in my opinion.

 

[Nyx]

As for January I think we need a centre back and a right winger (I'm not fond of Albrighton)

What about a new goalkeeper?

Gusan is so-so, right?

 

[Clegg]

From the latest Sid Lowe article for the Guardian. I found this stat pretty interesting.

Here's the article itself: For once no fatalism at Atlético despite Valencia ending unbeaten run

The weekend's best goal was from Valladolid. Michael Essien, left-back, right-back, midfielder, and all-round smiling soldier, did the one thing that no one in Madrid ever expected Michael Essien to do: score a goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, did not. Nor did Leo Messi. Nor, in fact, did Radamel Falcao. And that really is weird.

You have to go back to 10 December 2011 for the last time there was a round of La Liga games in which neither Messi nor Ronaldo scored.

 

[Wes]

Guzan has been immense since replacing Given. Whilst his ability ceiling is relatively low for typical Premiership standards he has been in great form for us this season and we wouldn't even have the small amount of points we have now without him.

Plus I've never liked the idea of buying a keeper in January to go straight in to the first team. They need time to build a rapport with your defenders, something best done in the Summer. Given will leave in the Summer and we may get a replacement then depending on where we finis hin the league.