Rage Online

What would you do tomorrow, given the importance of Sat’s game vs Wycombe?

What we did last time. Give it our best shot, but once Man City have sauntered to a 2-0 lead, we plead with Mr Guardiola for a non-aggression pact whereby we won't injure any of his starlets as long as they don't humiliate us!

Kairdiff Exile wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 4:24 pm What we did last time. Give it our best shot, but once Man City have sauntered to a 2-0 lead, we plead with Mr Guardiola for a non-aggression pact whereby we won't injure any of his starlets as long as they don't humiliate us!

Surely ‘what we did last time’ is get 1 forward (Obika) to harry their defence while the rest of our players camp on the edge of our own 18 yard box, allowing their fullbacks to spray Hollywood balls to their unmarked wingers all game while we all go ‘ooh’. Then when we realise we’re only 1-0 down with 10 mins to go, go on the attack for 30 seconds and get undone by two quick goals.

I actually hope we have a bit more of a go at them tomorrow. Not because I think it’s our best chance of winning necessarily, but because I want to be entertained by my team (not just by the visiting galacticos). And besides, we’ve got some real quality ourselves going forward this season.

Having said that, Burton showed what can happen when you don’t defend for your lives against them. So anything’s a bonus really.

We're one game away from a semi final - we do a Wigan and try our best to beat them. CB interview on YP is worth a watch he is def up for it.

Mackie has scored against the new City, hope he can do it again.

I see the concern, but play Man City with anything less that 100% focus and effort and a humiliation could be on the cards - and what would that mean for Saturday? I expect limited rotation - KR has already said Longy will play and I would not be surprised to see Moore at the back - aided by one or two more coming back from injury. All of that helps tonight and will help us, as much as we can think ahead of ourselves, for Saturday.

I thought we acquitted ourselves well last night. OK they may have had a couple of teenagers playing, but we definitely gave them a right go in the second half. Seeing the 2 minutes goal highlights only showed how good Man City are, particularly their first goal.

Interesting to see comments BTL here from neutrals / Man City perspective.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... tch-report

Absolutely, Slappy. Their first goal was deflected off Moore and Sterling's two tap-ins were only so easy because of his sheer talent and class in the timing and path of his runs, to get on the end of sublime passes (for the first of his goals in particular was an amazing angled cross). Sterling's goals also reiterated the lesson of their 2nd and 3rd goals from last year - the breathtaking speed and accuracy of their breakaways.

At the other end, we scored a great goal and now hold the record of the most shots directed towards Man City's goal in the entire Pep era. That was the real difference from last year - our willingness to go at them, and our ability to create genuine chances (even if not all 18 shots fall into that particular category).

What that also shows is that against teams that play football and with a decent ref (not perfect, but who is), we can play great football and compete, in most regards, with the very best.

I do not expect WW, given the run they are on, to Do a Shrew, so already looking forward to Saturday.

Yep, it was a million miles more fun than last time we lost to them. We tried to keep it tight and just hang in there in the first half, and mostly succeeded except for the one occasion that Ruffels got sucked into trying to compete for a ball on the halfway line and left an acre of space behind him. Even then Cancelo needed a big slice of luck to get the ball past Archer.

Then in the second half we pretty much matched them, and by the end were actually on top. It was reminiscent of the West Ham game at times. Crazy stuff against opponents like that. Sure, not all of the 18 efforts on goal threatened much but between Dickie’s header, Sykes’ volley and Mackie’s blaze over the bar we should have had City more worried at the end. And of course they picked us off twice ruthlessly on the break to kill our dreams.

When we play like that we’re a seriously good team, with some seriously good players who will no doubt be attracting interest from wealthier clubs higher up the pyramid. This January could be very important for the immediate future of the club.