The mancityfans.net football forum

Roberto Mancini will be asking his midfielders his to raise their game once again when they face Liverpool on Sunday afternoon.

Patrick Vieira's three match suspension means that the City manager will not be able to select the trio of the Frenchman, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong as he has preferred to at times since Vieira's return to fitness.

That means that Stephen Ireland could be one option for Mancini, who sees the battle with Gerrard, Mascherano and Aquilani as key to the result of Sunday's sell-out showdown.

He said, "Without Patrick we really only have Nigel, Gareth and Stephen as midfielders. I have asked a lot of them so far and probably will do against Liverpool, but they have done well for us.

"To win we will have to concentrate at
all times and play to our maximum. We
can’t leave any space for them. It will
be a very different game to those
against Stoke, we need to put our way
of playing on Liverpool which I think
we should be able to."

With the two sides so close in the table and with so much at stake, Mancini has echoed Shaun Wright-Phillips in asking for City's fans to influence proceedings as much as they can.

"They will be most important to us on Sunday, we need them because it is such a big game against a good side that is so near to us in the table. They can push the team on and be like the 12th player."

mcfc.co.uk

MaseCTID wrote:I'd rather he put SWP in instead of Pat and just go with 2 wingers.

Code: Select all

                 Given
           Lescott   Toure   

Richards                         Bridge

SWP        Kompany   Barry       Bellamy   

                De Jong

                  Ade


Whassat wrote:

Code: Select all

                 Given
           Lescott   Toure   

Richards                         Bridge

SWP        Kompany   Barry       Bellamy   

                De Jong

                  Ade


Seems like a likely setup considering our options...

Scorchio wrote:

Whassat wrote:

Code: Select all

                 Given
           Lescott   Toure   

Richards                         Bridge

SWP        Kompany   Barry       Bellamy   

                De Jong

                  Ade


Seems like a likely setup considering our options...

Prefer:

Given
Richards Kompany Lescott Bridge

SWP De Jong Barry Johnson

Ireland

Ade

But expect your team with Johnson instead of Bellamy. Maybe even Zabba as another DM and SWP on the bench as I dont think Mancio rates him.

Kiss_The_Goat wrote:

Scorchio wrote:

Whassat wrote:

Code: Select all

                 Given
           Lescott   Toure   

Richards                         Bridge

SWP        Kompany   Barry       Bellamy   

                De Jong

                  Ade


Seems like a likely setup considering our options...

Prefer:

Given
Richards Kompany Lescott Bridge

SWP De Jong Barry Johnson

Ireland

Ade

But expect your team with Johnson instead of Bellamy. Maybe even Zabba as another DM and SWP on the bench as I dont think Mancio rates him.

I'm thinking, going on the article on the site that they'll line up like this:

.......................Given..........................

Richards.......Toure.....Lescott........Bridge..

...........Ireland....De Jong.....Barry............

SWP.........................................Johnson.

.....................Ade.............................


or if the Tevez thing has been a load of mind games and hes back for tomorrow it'll be...


.......................Given..........................

Richards.......Toure.....Lescott........Bridge..

...........Ireland....De Jong.......Barry............

...................<--- Johnson --->.....................

.................Tevez.............Ade..............

avoidconfusion wrote:Let's not kid ourselves here. This is the formation Mancini will play:

----------------Gven
Zabaleta Toure Lescott Bridge
De Jong Kompany Barry Garrido
--------------Richards

ant london wrote:I can't watch this today and, well, I'm actually quite glad.

I think we are going to get dicked, and I think it will be a horror show to watch if the last few games' "performances" are anything to go by. I haven't felt this negative about watching us for bloody ages. I felt more positive under Pearce when I felt at least he was making the best out of a bad position.

Keen midfield battle....why don't we actually try to outplay the Scousers rather than just grinding them down. Please please please let Roberto make me look silly and overly negative today. I want to be proven totally wrong.

avoidconfusion wrote:

ant london wrote:I can't watch this today and, well, I'm actually quite glad.

I think we are going to get dicked, and I think it will be a horror show to watch if the last few games' "performances" are anything to go by. I haven't felt this negative about watching us for bloody ages. I felt more positive under Pearce when I felt at least he was making the best out of a bad position.

Keen midfield battle....why don't we actually try to outplay the Scousers rather than just grinding them down. Please please please let Roberto make me look silly and overly negative today. I want to be proven totally wrong.

Got the same bad feeling as well. At the beginning of the season I thought we could beat anyone and we did for the first 5 games. But even when we started drawing I felt we could beat anyone.

Now I am shitting myself before every game thinking we will get battered.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:The only thing I fear is the same kind of performance we have been served up in the last bunch of games. Of course midfield will be a battle , that's the way Pool play, but we have to have some real desire to win the game and that means a midfield that actually supports the attack. I do think if we play it their way we might come unstuck.