Man City Vs Wigan [R]

[Alan D]

Man City v Wigan preview
By Lewis Rutledge - Created on 17 Mar 2006

http://images.skysports.com/images/playerpics05_06/Premiership/preview-badges/Dec26/wigan-mancity.gif

Manchester City will be looking to keep up their impressive home form against Wigan on Saturday.

Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Aston Villa in the FA Cup was City's seventh consecutive win at Eastlands in all competitions, and they will be confident of extending that run against a Wigan side struggling to maintain their early season success.

A European place is probably just out of reach for both sides, but the game promises to be just as thrilling as the reverse fixture in December, which The Latics won 4-3.

Georgios Samaras has proved an instant success at City, notching four goals already, but he is doubtful for the clash after picking up a knee injury against Villa.

Captain Sylvain Distin is also struggling to shake off the virus which kept him out of the game in midweek, while Joey Barton may miss out with an ankle problem.

Henri Camara's stunning winner against Sunderland last week arrested a worrying slump in form for Wigan, who had failed to win any of their previous eight games.

Latics boss Paul Jewell could decide to hand striker David Connolly a place in the squad after he scored for the reserves during the week on his return from a hamstring injury.

David Thompson (knee) and Damien Francis (foot) are both being troubled by injury but are expected to be available.

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=371796&CPID=8&clid=&lid=&title=Man+City+v+Wigan+preview

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So it looks like Samaras won't be in the squad tomorrow, which means that the squad will probably look like this:

GK: James

RB: Sun Jihai / Mills (if Richards is in CB) / Richards (if Distin is back)
CB: Dunne
CB: Richards / Distin
LB: Jordan

RM: Sinclair
CM: Barton
CM: Musampa
LM: Riera

ST: Sibierski (most likely) / B. Wright-Phillips
ST: Vassell

I imagine Reyna will be on the bench, along with the other striker who won't be starting (prolly BWP), Sommeil could be on the bench along with Croft and Ireland.

[Alan D]

:eek: Ok I got the squad basically completely wrong! Hes made so many changes and he is being very risky! The team looks like this:

GK: James

RB: Mills
CB: Distin
CB: Sommeil
LB: Thatcher

RM: Sinclair
CM: Reyna
CM: Ireland
LM: Sun Jihai

ST: Sibierski
ST: B. Wright-Phillips

Bench:
Weaver
Croft
Micah Richards
Ishmael Miller
Samaras

Wigan are playing with 3 strikers as well! Man, this is going to be v. hard...

[batch]

Wigan are playing with 3 strikers as well! Man, this is going to be v. hard...


No we arent :)

[Frankfurt Blue]

Just got in to see the result and reports. How crap is this?!
SP attempts a second string team against a very good Wigan team, who are over the season deservedly above City, and it far from pays off.
So he has gambled resting players for Monday's game has he? Well if City don't beat West Ham, that's it for the season and back to the drawingboard for SP and his plans.
Poor form away from home and now results against this. Many fans and Wigan may deservedly feel insulted by the team selection, but it's Wigan with 3 more points pulling away from mid-table doomed (again!) City.
:mad:

[westhamfan]

Just got in to see the result and reports. How crap is this?!
SP attempts a second string team against a very good Wigan team, who are over the season deservedly above City, and it far from pays off.
So he has gambled resting players for Monday's game has he? Well if City don't beat West Ham, that's it for the season and back to the drawingboard for SP and his plans.
Poor form away from home and now results against this. Many fans and Wigan may deservedly feel insulted by the team selection, but it's Wigan with 3 more points pulling away from mid-table doomed (again!) City.
:mad:
I feel sorry for you, you sound like one of us....Should make a good game even better now, all to play for!!

[Alan D]

Yea, but at least if West Ham lose they are near to Europe so they can concentrate on qualifying for the UEFA Cup :( We aren't anywhere near it anymore and we have Chelsea next week away so no points there. If we lose the FA Cup match, our season is over. Pearce was definately at fault for his selection and, in fairness, some of the players that played yesterday have either been injured for most the season, been part of the reserves or have no experience at all. I rest my case. Look at where we are in the table and you'll see that we have done just as well under Pearce as we were under Keegan and that we haven't really progressed much at all.

I can't understand what Pearce did yesterday! Vassell was actually fit and I think that he was the only really fit striker we had (according to BBC) because Samaras was already injured, and now hes picked up an even worse injury! Sibierski went of injured! Why wasn't Vassell played yesterday? I understand why Pearce might of rested a few players but not 8 changes! If I were him I would of played the best players that were available which would of meant Vassell and probably BWP up-front since Samaras and Sibierski were already partly injured. Vassell does have a hernia problem but he can at least play through games. Beating Wigan would of been better for all the players (if they had been played) because it would of given them confidence going into the next game, but now the players will go into it knowing that they have lost the last home game and will be going into the game after a defeat. Dunne even wanted to play yesterday but he was left out of the squad.

I looked at the Prize money you get for the league positions and how far you progress in the FA Cup, and theres a lot more money on offer for where you finish than how far you get in the FA Cup. If they finish tenth then they would get £5.5m, yet you only get £2.2m for winning the FA Cup. There is a lot more money going on offer in the league and Pearce doesn't realise that. Winning the FA Cup means a trophy but theres more chance of us finishing in the top 10 than us winning the FA Cup cos teams like Chelsea and Liverpool are in it AND we have to beat West Ham, which I can't see us doing.

I'm sorry Pearce, but you messed up badly yesterday and hes gonna look like a right twat if we lose on Monday. Players get paid enough to play in basically every game!