Blackburn vs Manchester City [R]

[MVF]

Less than a week away.

I am really, really excited for this. Tevez is in doubt though, but we have enough depth to cover him. Toure should be fine, and Nedum may make the bench after a small injury.

How is everybody else feeling about it? Can't wait to see what the team performs like under an actual pressure situation

Most likely team

- Given -
- Zabaleta - Dunne - Toure - Bridge
- De Jong -
- Ireland - Barry -
- SWP - - - - - Robinho
- Adebayor -

Injured: Kompany, Ned (may be fit), Toure (most likely will be fit), RSC, Tevez (may be fit).

[thejuggernaut]

Less than a week away.

I am really, really excited for this. Tevez is in doubt though, but we have enough depth to cover him. Toure should be fine, and Nedum may make the bench after a small injury.

How is everybody else feeling about it? Can't wait to see what the team performs like under an actual pressure situation

Most likely team

- Given -
- Zabaleta - Dunne - Toure - Bridge
- De Jong -
- Ireland - Barry -
- SWP - - - - - Robinho
- Adebayor -

Injured: Kompany, Ned (may be fit), Toure (most likely will be fit), RSC, Tevez (may be fit).

Your most likely team is spot on, although I have MANY issues with it.

Solely the Backline.

Zabaleta loves to get caught going out, Bridge loves to get caught out, and Dunne (as per evidence in the preseason) is not fast enough to make up for the acres of space he will be responsible for.

Richards should be at CB, if just for this game.

But alas Dunne is still Cap'n and all evidence is pointed to him starting, which is a Damn shame considering his form has utterly and consistantly deteriorated over the last two years, if this was the NFL... he'd be cut.

[51BLU]

Given that virtually all City's players are away on midweek international duty I would hold your horses regarding formations. Bellamy has already pulled out of Welsh squad but hopefully will be available for selection against Blackburn on Saturday.

[Bthing]

I'm excited, yes.

But, I hope no injuries result from the international duties.

We are away from home, but...Blackburn have stuggled to find the back of the net in pre-season, and also I'm sure they are experiencing injury troubles as well.

I say 2-0 (Robinho, Barry)

[chinesefootballfan]

A draw would be good enough on the road. I know this is small ball mentality but hey, it's City on the road.

[CityBlues]

Hey lads, just fyi:

US Television - 10am on Setanta Sports US.

[51BLU]

Jammy sods ;)

No doubt, I'll be stuck with a dodgy stream that stops just as anything interesting is about to happen...

[CityBlues]

Jammy sods ;)

No doubt, I'll be stuck with a dodgy stream that stops just as anything interesting is about to happen...

Typical City :p

[thejuggernaut]

WHat is up with that!!

When the game is in the midfield with balls pinging off one teams head to the other for a lackluster 10 minutes the stream is as good as gold.. but then you know a goal is about to be scored by the fact that as soon as the announcers voice loudens your stream starts sucking n2o and slows down to a hault. Then when you finally get it back (reload) you see some player running around with his arms in the air waving to the crowd.

Does Bandwidth get affected by action on the pitch??
Frustrating beyond belief.

[Slater582]

A draw would be good enough on the road. I know this is small ball mentality but hey, it's City on the road.

It's also generally tough playing an Allardyce team away from home.

I gather City have been given tickets to the whole stand, so that's 7,000 away fans.

[51BLU]

It's also generally tough playing an Allardyce team away from home.

I gather City have been given tickets to the whole stand, so that's 7,000 away fans.

Many Blues will have bought tickets in the Blackburn stands too.

How does the song go now...

Blues are here
Blue are there
Blues are every fecking where
na na na nah na na nah na nah

[CityBlues]

WHat is up with that!!

When the game is in the midfield with balls pinging off one teams head to the other for a lackluster 10 minutes the stream is as good as gold.. but then you know a goal is about to be scored by the fact that as soon as the announcers voice loudens your stream starts sucking n2o and slows down to a hault. Then when you finally get it back (reload) you see some player running around with his arms in the air waving to the crowd.

Does Bandwidth get affected by action on the pitch??
Frustrating beyond belief.

Hahahaha, so true so true.

[Manchester City]

WHat is up with that!!

When the game is in the midfield with balls pinging off one teams head to the other for a lackluster 10 minutes the stream is as good as gold.. but then you know a goal is about to be scored by the fact that as soon as the announcers voice loudens your stream starts sucking n2o and slows down to a hault. Then when you finally get it back (reload) you see some player running around with his arms in the air waving to the crowd.

Does Bandwidth get affected by action on the pitch??
Frustrating beyond belief.

Believe it or not, it does effect your bandwith use, though not the bandwith itself. Think of your computer as a shower faucet, a pipe as bandwith, the water running through it as the stream (come to think of it, that works really well), and buffering as a water heater somewhere along the line--because of the nature of the compression codec, higher action or changes in relative pixels in each frame can increase the amount of water flowing to the water heater, where it is being drawn from further down the pipe to your shower. Unfortunately, if your pipes are small, it may not be able to get enough water to the heater as is necessary to make sure you have a constant flow in the shower (water heater drains before it can be refilled; water pressure dynamics don't apply unfortunately).

The codec takes the high quality, large data size video being recorded and converts it into a lower quality, small data size stream by, in most part, keeping pixels that have not changed their colours fairly drastically the same, and only allowing noticeably changing pixels to move with each new frame. This means that the size of the stream being sent goes down with a lower refresh rate and a lower rate of pixels changing between frames. Thus, if you have a stationary camera, filming a single smaller subject moving around a large environment slowly, the rate of pixel change is very low and so it is fairly easy to stream even over slower connections. But, when you have different shots, from different moving cameras, tracking multiple subjects, all moving fairly quickly in a smaller environment, each frame and their pixels have a tendency to be very different (high rate of pixel change), thus making it a larger data size stream.

In short, coverage of a goal has a tendency to be a bit more frantic and focused than open play, thus increasing data size over a finite bandwith, slowing things down. If only the rules of water pressure did apply.

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I am very much looking forward to the match. I don't think I'll make any predictions this match. I want to enjoy the first official match in a child like, pure experience way. I hope for a very good showing, though.

[Golasso]

My lineup, keep in mind Kompany and RSC are definitely out, and Tevez and Ade have little injuries:

Given

Zab
Ned
Toure
Bridge

DeJong
Barry Ireland

SWP Tevez Robinho

What I think (fear?) it'll be:

Given

Zab Dunne Toure Bridge

De Jong

Barry Ireland

SWP Benjani Robinho

[Manchester City]

My lineup, keep in mind Kompany and RSC are definitely out, and Tevez and Ade have little injuries:

Given

Zab
Ned
Toure
Bridge

DeJong
Barry Ireland

SWP Tevez Robinho

What I think (fear?) it'll be:

Given

Zab Dunne Toure Bridge

De Jong

Barry Ireland

SWP Benjani Robinho

What I truly fear is your bad line-up with Richards in place of Pablo. Now that is a right side to cringe at.

[CityBlues]

What I truly fear is your bad line-up with Richards in place of Pablo. Now that is a right side to cringe at.

That's exactly the side that will be playing tomorrow I think.

[CityBlues]

But Bellamy instead of Benjani.

[CityBlues]

Just an update on the injuries:


Manchester City are without new striker Roque Santa Cruz, who is still recovering from knee surgery.

Carlos Tevez (heel) and Craig Bellamy (knee) should play after overcoming knocks. Emmanuel Adebayor and Shay Given are doubts with groin strains.

Doubtful: Adebayor (groin), Bellamy (knee), Given (groin), Onuoha (thigh)
Injured: Johnson (groin), Kompany (toe), Santa Cruz (knee)


Has anyone else heard of the Given injury? That shakes things up a bit.

So it could look like this:

Taylor
Richards/Zab, Dunne, Toure, Bridge
De Jong, Barry
Tevez, Ireland, Robinho
Bellamy/Benjani

or

Taylor
Richards/Zab, Dunne, Toure, Bridge
De Jong, Barry
SWP, Ireland, Robinho
Tevez

I am quite worried with the back four, also if Given doesn't play that makes the defense that much worse. I'm hoping Adebayor will play, although it seems unlikely.

[CityBlues]

David Dunn wasnts to kick the lumps out of us, fairly of course: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=667420&sec=england&cc=5901

[51BLU]

Read about it this morning...

Stupid really, if anything it will backfire, as I'm sure the referee will have read reports and will be looking out for overly aggressive tackles from Rovers.

It's important that we match them for desire & physicality, if that happens then our superior technical skills will be allowed to flourish resulting in a positive result.

Having said that I think the match will end up being a draw.