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just soo excited
we are playing in champions league...
how will we play with napoli
i think its the midfield that counts and we are with no other option than yaya and milner .they two are sure to start .hope milner recover fast.its the attack of tevez and dzeko.and defence of kolarov toure kompany zaba.
game is as usual but the conductor of orchestra will be nasri.i think mancini is gonna rest silva nad bring him in 60 minutes.its like bringing nasri at a midway point in wigans game.

Napoli will give us our biggest test by far so far this season. They are a very well organised side who can keep the ball and have a number of creative, dangerous players. We should come out top though, can see a hard fought 1-0 win.

I watched them play at Cesana on Saturday. They rested a couple of players, admittedly, but they looked pretty disorganised at the back.

If we score relatively early I can see a comfortable win for us.

I watched their first game of the season a few days ago - they look good going forward but brittle at the back - although it could have been lack of match practise. Our fixture will be their second so we could have an advantage in sharpness (depending on which team Bob puts out). We just need to play our own game and on our terms and we should make a good game of it. (Basically we have to stop them slowing the game down particularly in the second half)

Dameerto wrote:I watched their first game of the season a few days ago - they look good going forward but brittle at the back - although it could have been lack of match practise. Our fixture will be their second so we could have an advantage in sharpness (depending on which team Bob puts out). We just need to play our own game and on our terms and we should make a good game of it.

Aye, we should come out on top. They certainly will be our biggest test so far though.

think manchini wont risk it first game in C.L. it will be totenhem team first 11

I think we have the ability to score more goals than any of the teams in our group so we should try to do so. I'm not sure we can play a cautious game unless we swap some attacking players for more defensive ones; the back 4 + Yaya & one other DM isn't good enough to keep out a top side imo. If we have the ball at the other end of the pitch & have the oppo chasing us however, it's perfectly adequate.

I'd pretty much pick the side that won at Spurs if available.

I have a feeling that wednesday i will listen to this all day:
[youtube]YkADj0TPrJA&ob=av2e[/youtube]

Great times ahead.

PeterParker wrote:I have a feeling that wednesday i will listen to this all day:
[youtube]YkADj0TPrJA&ob=av2e[/youtube]

Great times ahead.

I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out and my balls eaten by ants personally, but I do agree there are great times ahead.

I think this will be more straight forward than a lot of observers are predicting. There's no doubt that in Cavani they have a goal scorer and we will need to concentrate but I can't see them being able to handle us.

Bobby will play Silva, Nasri, Aguero and Dzeko, those four will have far to much class for them.

I hope we dont get smashed to bits. It would derail our great start to the season and make us start to second guess ourselves. It would also probably put Bobby back into last seasons frame of mind.

I pray we take it to them and see a really top game, 3-2, 4-2.

Crossie wrote:I hope we dont get smashed to bits. It would derail our great start to the season and make us start to second guess ourselves. It would also probably put Bobby back into last seasons frame of mind.

I pray we take it to them and see a really top game, 3-2, 4-2.

100% right, I really hope we don't get ravaged by it.

Although i am confident that we are in one of the best shape that City had in our history, i am a little worried before the game. I wasen't very impressed the way we handled the Europe games last year, although you might say that Europa League was a secondary competition and we had other things on our mind.
Napoli is way better than Juventus, and with Juve imho i thought we had a lot of problems in both games when we played with them.
I hope that a win will boost even more our team, but Bob must be on gard because Napoli has the worst habit to revive from the dead. They did in 12 times last season and 3 times in Europe.

dbinod wrote:just soo excited
we are playing in champions league...
how will we play with napoli
i think its the midfield that counts and [highlight]we are with no other option than yaya and milner[/highlight] .they two are sure to start .hope milner recover fast.its the attack of tevez and dzeko.and defence of kolarov toure kompany zaba.
game is as usual but the conductor of orchestra will be nasri.i think mancini is gonna rest silva nad bring him in 60 minutes.its like bringing nasri at a midway point in wigans game.

Really? Hows this?

I'd like to think that this will be more straightforward than we might be thinking. A big factor for me is this is only their second game so if we start brightly they may struggle to gain some composure and we can try to take advantage of that early doors.

As for Mancini's approach, i dont see why he should change the set up, if he was happy to go to Spurs with that set up, then at home he should be prepared to set up like that v anyone tbh.

Unless Napoli have a game plan that somehow allows them to negate our midfield, by outpassing us or bypassing it, then it is difficult (as a lot of managers due to face City might also be thinking) to counter Mancini's set up. i can imagine them shrinking back while trying to cope with the movement and trickyness and look to try and get counters.

I mean ask yourself how you would counter City's game, it ain't easy. Swansea had the right idea holding a line very high up the pitch, but they didn't, and a lot of other teams wont, have the personnel to maintain that for 90 mins.

Napoli are more of an unknown style that might suggest a bit of caution needed, but i hope we are not cautious because basically we have plenty of experience in the team and don't need to respect them anymore than any other team just because it is CL.

I dont see why anyone is even in doubt about this. Napoli aren't even the best team in their shit slow league we are the best, maybe second best team in the best league in the world.

We are better than them, stronger going forward by far and our defence is on another planet compared to theirs.

Also they are away in another country.

we are going for 3, that is for sure....so relax and let us enjoy our first (of many) CL win:))

I'm thinking Bobby will revert to type. Cagey slow and cautious. For the first half at least. The second half he'll look to up the tempo and get something out of the match.

I honestly don't care how we play as long as we win. It's our first CL game ever and I would like to win it.

i just hope that we end up with at least a 2 goal aggregate as going to Naples should prove to be (obviously) trickier