Enjoy
Referee: Michael Dean
Assistant Referees: Simon Bennett & Marc Perry
Fourth Official: Kevin Friend
Team Selection
Valdes
Fabio Barragan Gibson Friend
De Roon Clayton Leadbitter
Traore Downing
Negredo
And the rest...
Here we have the opportunity to play without the pressure of our relegation worries. One game away from wembley.
If City are 'UP' for it, then I can't really see us getting anything from this game…HOWEVER, I'm hoping that City might have their eye on a couple of other prizes (namely Premier League and Champions League). They played on Sunday, are playing tomorrow night (Wednesday), playing us on Saturday, and then have their CL game against Monaco the following Wednesday. Playing four times in ten days, you'd have to expect there to be some decent squad rotation going on, so we could get lucky…As such and if so.... then we COULD get something out of the game. (Meaning win it)! …Having said that.... if the Palace & Stoke attitude persists I think lower Championship is more our level.
It's all set up for the Boro win isn't it?…We've been so awful and we have no chance on paper, so Boro-logic dictates we'll give a gutsy 1-1 performance before winning on penalties. Karanka will be given a reprieve before we lose the next three league games in a row…It's the Boro way.
This would be such a middlesbrough match to win. Hope man city have their eyes on other competitions and slip up against us. If they play like they did against Huddersfield though, we won't be able to stop them. Especially not with our thrown together defence.
I'll be over for this one so hope we at least turn up and give it a real go, would hate to see us just roll over and take a slapping
Negredo should be well up for this to make a point, aslong as we give it a go and don't get battered, they're great when in full flow but if we ruffle their feathers then we might have a chance, of course Victor will have to be on top form also, fingers crossed UTB
It wouldn't surprise me to see Traore start on the bench. City dealt with him so well at the Etihad I'd be surprised if AK starts him in this game.
Bernardo is nailed on to start, I think. With our recent issues at full back, I'd be very surprised to see 3 full backs start in the same team. Other than that, I think Humpty's team is about right…Would be interesting to see if Karanka went a bit more attacking to try out a different approach, but on the flip side, City is the exact type of game where you need to keep it tight and play on the counter.
Man City playing a near full strength team tonight so expect a fair few changes on Saturday!
Any chance of Man city been tired by the time they play us on Saturday?
Im gonna make a bold statement since considering Aguero threat is in his feet not in the air, we should plan Fry and Gibson as the back 2 with Fabio on the right or Barragan if fit and friend/Fabio on the left. I actually believe from what i saw of Fry last season that he is a better cb than Bernardo and Ayala has just lost the will to play for us so id play him over them both.
Guardiola has been given manager of the month. We're in
