Friday, 14 January 2011

Man City v Wolves Preview

Our second game of a hard set of fixtures takes us to the City of Manchester stadium, against an inform Manchester City. A squad worth hundreds of millions at second in the table.

Roberto Mancini has assembled a squad that is starting to become a force, and the £27 million capture of Edin Dzeko could be signing that turns them into one to be reckoned with. It's unlikely the Bosnian will start, as he has barely played in the past month (winter breaks, eh?) but he could make his debut at some point. There's also that little Argentine guy, I forget his name sometimes. Anything the comes good from City, you can be sure he's played some part in it.
Dave Edwards will miss out

Enough of how good they are, I'm still pretty confident we can go there and get something. How fantastic it would be to complete an unlikely double, proving the critics once again wrong and taking us up the table. Our away form has been poor this season, but I'm confident that with a game plan we are in with a chance.

Against City earlier in the season, we played a 4-5-1 that worked perfectly. We didn't allow them any time and space, but we were also able to break forward in numbers. I can us going with that, with Nenad Milijas and our captain Karl Henry returning to the side. With them two and Foley in the middle, we have a very capable centre of midfield at defending and attacking.

Unfortunately, that means one of the strikers would drop out. And it would have to be Steven Fletcher, who played okay against Chelsea but for this game he may be on the bench. Out wide, Matty Jarvis and Stephen Hunt can continue the good work they have been doing with a but more freedom. Jarvis hasn't been at his best lately, but against Zabaleta or Boateng he can hopefully cause them plenty of problems.

What I think the team will be:

Hennessey

Zubar
Stearman
Berra
Ward

Hunt
Foley
Henry
Milijas
Jarvis

Doyle

I expect this to be a tight game, and I see us getting a goal but I think it will be a heroic defeat. 2-1 City.

8 comments:

  1. with McCarthy's boy at left back against a team of City's quality we are in big trouble. He's had a couple of lucky results lately but sheer endeavour is not enough in this league in the long run and I expect this match to be the beginning of the end for Mick. He's a decent enough bloke but anyone can see he's not up to the task in hand. Can we keep the score below 5? I'll be surprised if we do

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  2. Euston Dave - Spot on fella

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  3. I think you've got the team spot on there blogger. I can't see Mick going 442 but they will probably try and play the way they played at anfield harrassing theuir opponents in their own half. If we win this one will it be 3 lucky wins Dave? or will you start to rethink your attitude to Mick?

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  4. Dream on pal, never forgiven you lot for 74'. Comfy 2-0 City win. Dzeko won't be playing.

    MCFC Texas

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  5. Anybody remember when we beat them 5-0 in the seventies. 3 for the doog and 2 for the king. We had a proper manager with top flight pedigree then

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  6. Dream on, yet you have only predicted one more to win by. Loving these cocky city fans, they were like this last time and we know what happened.

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  7. Check out recent (last 7) results Neil. You'd be better off against us if you were crap. Expect the unexpected

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  8. I just hope we play a bit more of a passing game. I'm worried about this drift to a more direct style. Hennessey's kicking seems to be our most attacking weapon and it's a crime when we by pass milijas. Let's get it down and play, it didn't do us any harm at molineux

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