Derby lineup

[DoomMerchant]

Includes Richards, and Balotelli.

Fucking crazy is right. Aguero and Balotelli up front.

Tevez in the hole. Midfield three of silva, yaya, Barry.

The back four picks itself.

Let's do this.

[Esky]

Hart
Richards/Zabaleta Kompany Lescott Clichy
NDJ Barry
Yaya Silva
Aguero Tevez

Pantilimon, Richards/Zabaleta, Toure, Milner, Nasri, Johnson, Balotelli

Pizarro, Savic, Kolarov, (Hargreaves) and Dzeko miss out.

Possibly Milner ahead of NDJ to help cancel out their wide players, but he hasn't played much in the past couple of months and NDJ has been great lately. They'll probably go 4-5-1 with Rooney or Cleverley in midfield.

[BobbyJ1956]

Three things that seem obvious:
1. Aguero & Tevez together is a must, after how they combined in recent matches. Gary Neville's analysis of this was dead right.
2. Balotelli & AJ as impact subs if needed. Neither should start.
3. Richards at full back.

Want to see YaYa push on up front. They are scared of his surges and he can repeat his Wembley performances if he's allowed to go forwards, but i can't decide if DeJong or MIlner should be the one to anchor things so he can do that. Would like to see Pizarro on the bench as cover for Silva if Silva's still missing some of his earlier spark.
The only place where they are better than City is with Nani or Valencia going down the wing and crossing it. Who's going to cut out that threat?

[phips]

Three things that seem obvious:
1. Aguero & Tevez together is a must, after how they combined in recent matches. Gary Neville's analysis of this was dead right.
2. Balotelli & AJ as impact subs if needed. Neither should start.
3. Richards at full back.

Want to see YaYa push on up front. They are scared of his surges and he can repeat his Wembley performances if he's allowed to go forwards, but i can't decide if DeJong or MIlner should be the one to anchor things so he can do that. Would like to see Pizarro on the bench as cover for Silva if Silva's still missing some of his earlier spark.
The only place where they are better than City is with Nani or Valencia going down the wing and crossing it. Who's going to cut out that threat?

THIS

In order for Yaya to play up front NDJ and Barry have to be behind him. So that drops Nasri.

Back 5
NDJ Barry
Silva Yaya
Tevez
Aguero

[zuricity]

Bodemeister and Union rags are joint favourites !

[DoomMerchant]

it's not popular, and, tin hat on, most blues won't agree...

but Balotelli...he has a lot to prove and will do something special.

cheers

[Grob]

it's not popular, and, tin hat on, most blues won't agree...

but Balotelli...he has a lot to prove and will do something special.

cheers

Its not worth the risk in my opinion but we will have to see what Bobby decides

--------------------Hart

Zabs/Micah----VK----Lescott-----Clichy

------------NDJ------------Barry

----Silva----------Yaya---------Tevez

------------------Aguero

[ashton287]

Balo can fuck off and come on later on, don't give him the opportunity tonfuck us over.

Pretty sure if zabs starts they will get a penalty or he will just get skinned in open play and they will score. It has to be Richards and he has to stay on for the whole 90.

De gea is shit and tevez will fire a few shots at him which will unsettle his shaky hands aswell.

[Original Dub]

Balo can fuck off and come on later on, don't give him the opportunity tonfuck us over.

Pretty sure if zabs starts they will get a penalty or he will just get skinned in open play and they will score. It has to be Richards and he has to stay on for the whole 90.

De gea is shit and tevez will fire a few shots at him which will unsettle his shaky hands aswell.

I agree.

Don't change that attacking quartet unless for some reason it stops working. Nasri, silva, tevez and aguero have all assisted and scored in the last 3 games.

I can't see any team living with them.

Richards for zabba is obvious and toure further foward is too. I'm pretty sure mancini won't start toure holding again because he's better off on the bench than there imo.

[Dazzacity]

Mancini would have to be fookin crazy to start Balo in this game after the way Tevez has been playing. We need someone like Tevez to chase things down and put them under pressure high up the pitch. Balo doesnt do enough of that.

I cant see how their defence could handle Tevez, Aguero,Silva and Yaya. My only worry is that a draw would make the rags very happy. They might go all out defensive on us and aim to get us on the break. Is their defence good enough for that though?? Also, I could see AJ being a handful in this game.

[kinkylola]

hart
richards kompany lescott clichy

johnson yaya dejong silva

aguero tevez


The way we have been playing with Aguero and Tevez up top, not only would it be risky to start balo because of his attitude, it would be stupid to change the system that has seen us back into the title race.

If balo comes on it should be as a sub to replace johnson when he fades after 60 minutes. And honestly if we aren't losing/tied, I would rather bring on Nasri. Balo needs to sit and think awhile about what he wants to do at city. II firmly believe that balo is a big game player, but it's too much of a gamble right now.

[Dubciteh]

micah and milner for nasri and zaba, the nutcase back on the bench along with Aj and dzeko and should be fine....

[Green & Blue]

it's not popular, and, tin hat on, most blues won't agree...

but Balotelli...he has a lot to prove and will do something special.

cheers

Okay i'll bite.

Firstly Aguero and Tevez is going to scare 7 shades of shit out of Rio and co so why would we want to change anything upfront?

Mainly i just can't help but feel if he was to start such an important game a moment of mario madness could throw it all away.

[Ted Hughes]

I can see Doomie's point about Balotelli but imo if he's going to do that ( & if we need him to do that ) he can do it from the bench.

It will be easier for him to change the game if the rags are tired & he is fresh.

I'd deffo go for Micah but then it's whether to play Nasri or Nige or even Milner imo.

I've no idea.

I've no idea how the rags will play it; park the bus or go for it. I expect they'll park the bus but personally I would keep it tight & concentrate on possession at the start because Ferguson is a gambler & they may just throw the fucking lot at us from kick off to try to nick a goal THEN park the bus. Perhaps the best team, is one that can keep the ball, look at Utd, kill them off & then use the higher quality to dismantle them, which is how we've done it recently when beating them.

[ruralblue]

it's not popular, and, tin hat on, most blues won't agree...

but Balotelli...he has a lot to prove and will do something special.

cheers

Said a couple of weeks ago after his sending off that he will come on in the derby and get the winner. Just a feeling and on course with good old 'typical' city :-)

Hart
Richards - Komps - Lescott - Clichy
Barry - NDJ
Silva - Yaya - Aguaro
Tevez

[trout man]

Thinking about it from the psychological perspective in respect of Tevez and Balo, would you rather be facing a fresh Tevez coming on at 60mins in a tight derby or Balo? I feel Mancini will see this game going to the wire and if a substitution is to be made to win the game then Tevez ( for a whole range of reasons) is the one player that would instill a sense of fear into the scum. It's a gamble I know, but I feel that if Balo is a plausible option for Mancini he will start with him and unleash Tevez on a tired scum team as they will have been chasing the ball for the majority of the previous 60 mins.

[Ted Hughes]

Thinking about it from the psychological perspective in respect of Tevez and Balo, would you rather be facing a fresh Tevez coming on at 60mins in a tight derby or Balo? I feel Mancini will see this game going to the wire and if a substitution is to be made to win the game then Tevez ( for a whole range of reasons) is the one player that would instill a sense of fear into the scum. It's a gamble I know, but I feel that if Balo is a plausible option for Mancini he will start with him and unleash Tevez on a tired scum team as they will have been chasing the ball for the majority of the previous 60 mins.

Tevez is currently passing the ball as well as or better than Silva & Nasri, which for a striker is incredible. It is rubbing off on Aguero who is losing the ball a lot less than he was. Every time we've brought on Tevez for a decent spell, we've started passing the ball & looked like scoring. With Balotelli in the team v Arsenal, we passed it like Stoke.

[trout man]

Thinking about it from the psychological perspective in respect of Tevez and Balo, would you rather be facing a fresh Tevez coming on at 60mins in a tight derby or Balo? I feel Mancini will see this game going to the wire and if a substitution is to be made to win the game then Tevez ( for a whole range of reasons) is the one player that would instill a sense of fear into the scum. It's a gamble I know, but I feel that if Balo is a plausible option for Mancini he will start with him and unleash Tevez on a tired scum team as they will have been chasing the ball for the majority of the previous 60 mins.

Tevez is currently passing the ball as well as or better than Silva & Nasri, which for a striker is incredible. It is rubbing off on Aguero who is losing the ball a lot less than he was. Every time we've brought on Tevez for a decent spell, we've started passing the ball & looked like scoring. With Balotelli in the team v Arsenal, we passed it like Stoke.

In fairness Ted, I would like to see Tevez scaring the shit out of them for the prerequisite 97mins

[Esky]

Thinking about it from the psychological perspective in respect of Tevez and Balo, would you rather be facing a fresh Tevez coming on at 60mins in a tight derby or Balo? I feel Mancini will see this game going to the wire and if a substitution is to be made to win the game then Tevez ( for a whole range of reasons) is the one player that would instill a sense of fear into the scum. It's a gamble I know, but I feel that if Balo is a plausible option for Mancini he will start with him and unleash Tevez on a tired scum team as they will have been chasing the ball for the majority of the previous 60 mins.

No way should Balo start ahead of Tevez. A bench with some of Milner/Johnson/Nasri/Balo/Dzeko should be more than enough to change the game if we need to.

Tevez and Aguero have been great. It's our biggest ever Premiership game - no time to be messing with what's been working.

(Also, while I get your point, Mancini left Tevez on the bench until the 85th minute against Arsenal. The site will crash if something like that happens again).

[RodneyRodney]

I don't think Dzeko will make the bench. Mancini has put him out to grass, and he's probably played his last game for us. . .