News: Nah, I think I'll stay on - The Other Teams Thread [R]

City go through on back of a bogus PK and an offside goal.

Purely coincidence that their fixture wasn't chosen for VAR.

 

All hail Man Cheaty…

 

Should have stayed silent..

 

Amen to that ShIt.

 

Amen to that ShIt.

 

The more I watch TFM, the more I think we need wingback cover this summer. He's just not getting any better. Physically he has all the tools but his positioning is just awful and he goes to the ground way to often.

 

Just as a say TFM has been poor he makes a couple good tackles on Mane.

 

Everton take the lead against Chelsea.

 

He'll probably become a good player some day, just not with us.

 

Alonso continues giving those who think he is defensively weak more ammo by giving away a penalty needlessly.

Sigurdsson pen is saved but he scores with the rebound.

Everton 2 up.

 

Can't Stop. Watching.https://t.co/8r5mgEsoAw

— FourFourTwo (@FourFourTwo) March 16, 2019

 

That Everton win is some much needed balm on what has been a shitty weekend football wise, with our FA Cup elimination plus Cheaty still on course for a Treble or even a Quadruple.
Side note, it's clear that Hazard is running out the string until the end of the end of the season, when he'll be off to Real.

 

Fin - Chelsea lose 2-0 to Everton and miss the opportunity to bump us down to 6th.

Finally some good news this weekend

 

With Valencia and Darmian leaving he would be a perfect back up. But he needs to have 15-20 appearances next season with us to stay.

 

The New White Heart Lane will finally host it's first official game on April 3rd, when Spurs play Crystal Palace. It's about time tbh, even if it looks like the wait is worth it (beautiful stadium).

 

City keep getting those favorable draws in the FA Cup: they'll be facing Brighton in the FA Cup, while it will be Watford vs Wolves in the other semi. Brighton, in theory at least, is the weakest of the teams left in the competition.

 

If Chelsea are to bin Sarri before the end of the season, then now would be the time to do it.

Not necessarily suggesting they should, but they have form for turning over managers that are not performing before end of season and a transfer ban in the summer will make it hard to adjust a squad to Sarri ball.

With the international break would at least allow time for a successor to sort out his staff and preparations.

 

[BREAKING NEWS❗] @LuisSuarez9 has sprained his right ankle. Tests tomorrow will determine the exact extent of the injury #BetisBarça pic.twitter.com/oFc5BfYudM

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 17, 2019

Latest reports appear to indicate he could be out 2-3wks...

 

How are we going to handle this guy?

Combined goals and assists this season:

🇦🇷 Lionel Messi: 60

🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo: 36
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Raheem Sterling: 35
🇫🇷 Karim Benzema: 31
🇪🇬 Mo Salah: 28
🇧🇪 Eden Hazard: 27
🇫🇷 Antoine Griezmann: 26

Head and shoulders above the rest. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/ogQHBTNCd0

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) March 18, 2019

 

Man marking.. Messi is stoppable and threat is not limited to him..

 

Too bad this didn’t happen

Mario Balotelli was wearing a t-shirt with Marcus Rashford on it under his Marseille shirt & intended to unveil it if he scored vs PSG tonight. (C+)

— Get French Football News (@GFFN) March 17, 2019

 

- narrow back four (let them have it wide but dont let them come inside)

- three mobile mids (like we did vs PSG - ie not Matic, not Pogba)

- Pogs @ #10 with two strikers (pref Rash / Lukaku) so we still carry a threat

- Pogs can cover the ground in front of the three CMs who need to be deep (can't afford space between our lines - that is where Messi likes to operate, need the lines tight)

Fact is he will beat a player or two so a dedicated man-marker defence less effective against him. Better to compress the space he operates in so he has to come deeper to get the ball and beat more players.

Gonne be tough - but is doable

 

Lingard is going to be the most important player in this tie.

He needs to have a job of tracking Alba in the final third and he also needs to add pressure on Busquets in the initial phase of the build up.

Lukaku will need to drift out wide on the counters and only play centrally when Barca are organized defensively.

When Lukaku drifts two things will happen:

Space is attacked since Alba is pushed up and even if he isn't Lukaku will eat him alive which will then drag Umtiti out of position and let Lingard attack centrally with Martial tucked in.