Remodez

Would say Mertesacker and Koscielny are a much better pairing, the defence as a whole just seems more solid with those two. Plus they are much better at positioning and tackling than Vermaelen. Vermaelen is not that great, I would feel a lot more confident in us winning if I saw him starting.

You would end up with Spanish like television deals being made and the gulf in class between the top 4 and everyone else would be even worse.

Most of their bright prospects are out on loan. But yeah, games like these are vital to Guidetti, Razak and Denis (looks class whenever I've seen him) who wouldn't get a look in otherwise. Even with the subs they made it was clear that they were still looking to use the match to develop their youngsters. And I'm pretty sure City and Mancini cared, they wouldn't have gone with such a strong team if they didn't. I didn't see the game though so the players might not have been motivated or maybe it was Pantilimon flapping at air the whole game.

Zero end product is stretching it a bit, he's just an inconsistent finisher but does everything else right. Good thing is that Arteta looks tired and in need of a rest. You could see that in the second half both this match and the Montpellier one. He might not be at 100% when we play them if his current form is anything to go by. You can see the effect Bould has on Arsenal already defensively, turned Gibbs and Jenkinson from sub par players to solid dependable defenders. They have already become vital to the way Arsenal play due to their high energy and pressing up the pitch. All they need is a goal from Giroud for his confidence and they will be complete. I still think we can win though if we play the same team we did v Stoke though.

They had good individual defenders but as a unit they were pretty average and at times down right poor.

Probably right but I was basing that on his ability rather than anything else. Not sure what his fitness is like but he looked very good for Fiorentina whenever I saw him. Got double digits in cleans sheets which is a good achievement considering how average Fiorentina are.And considering that it's on a free, I think it's a risk worth taking. His attitude does stink at times though.

Speaking of keepers, Southampton have signed Artur Boruc on a free transfer. Would have made great backup to Cech, 32 as well so he wouldn't get in the way of Courtois.

Never had any complaints.

That's him gone in a few years then.

Oscar based on the performance but tempted to give it to Cole because he finally scored and come the end of the season that could be a vital point.

Glen Johnson is better attacking, especially from left back and he isn't even one. My view anyway.

Lukaku is starting for West Brom.

HNNNGGG

Them selling their players should feature in their plan, they should have a good idea if a player of theirs wants to leave and should have already have replacements in mind. You're right it's not fair when that happens but I don't think that on it's own should be enough to change it.

When is Marin coming back?

Not really, it gives you the change to finalise your team (be is buying or selling) and see how your team performs in competitive matches. Those matches are important to identifying any weaknesses in your squad. The matches when the window is still open are often vital and make a whole lot of difference to a team's season, Arsenal come to mind immediately, no way they would have finished Top 4 without it.

Pathetic. Nothing more can be said.

I'm just glad we weren't embarrassed. If RDM had gone into that match with his usual line up and played defensively we would have got destroyed, no doubt about it. Said that ages ago and we even got a sneak preview off that when we went defensive in the last 30 mins. You play defensively against Juventus and you will conceed, there's no doubt about it. Only way to beat them is to have a go and I was glad we were doing that, until of course we went defensive. Sort of like RDM really, one step forward two steps back. Starts Oscar, plays Lampard as well. Romeu would have controlled a game (could bring him on for Lampard to tighten up and control the midfield) like this but of course he's probably forgotten how to even kick a ball. Ramires still playing right wing, didn't do sh*t as we saw Asamoah (sp?) still dominated the left flank. Performance overall was good and encouraging though so I'm happy overall.

Christ, not this again.

Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Marchiso, Pirlo; Vucinic, Asamoah, Vidal; Giovinco.

Thing is in many parts of the game it was Maicon v Ronaldo and Marcelo. It was always going to be hard regardless of who played right back, Mancini's formation and tactics didn't help at all. Also when he's making those forward runs it should be Garcia and Kompany thinking about defending, not Maicon. You can't limit Maicon to defending the whole game just because it's Ronaldo, the best part of his game is attacking so naturally he's going to go forward and have to rely on Kompany and Garcia to fill in for him.This is how it was for the majority of the game; Not sure how him being replaced by Zabaleta is any reflection on how he played. He was always going to be subbed for him regardless, he can't play a full 90 min at his age and current fitness, especially not against the pace of Ronaldo and Marcelo. And like you said, Zabaleta wasn't great either. I'm not a Maicon fan by any means but the amount of stick he is getting isn't really fair.

Di Maria destoryed City, only thing missing was a goal or an assist. I would have him down as one of the best wingers in the world. It was because of Kompany not doing his job proper that he had to "babysit him". Maicon was perfectly fine, people are nit picking and probably reacting to what the stupid pundits said. He got beaten once by Ronaldo and that was the only time it was actually his fault, Kompany should be a lot closer and have been ready to meet Ronaldo when he cuts inside.Speaking of Kompany, that was his worst performance for City.

That's how he was taught to play the game, there's no doubt that he would try to implement the Barca style of play if he was to join us. He's known to be very stubborn in adjusting his tactics as well but his reputation should make the transition easier, in theory. I sort of agree and disagree with that. A good manager shouldn't limit his tactics based on the players he has and nor should he limit his players by using such tactics, he should be looking at ways to constantly improve the team and players and pick tactics that allow that to happen. Obviously depends on the circumstances but I'm speaking in general there. RDM played it safe (Given his situation was the right option I guess) and it worked out well for him last season, that's great but he can't keep playing the same way. Now he has a much more creative team and he can't find the right tactics to get them to play "attractive attacking football" (RDM's and Roman's words, not mine). Very early days and all but I can only go off what's happened so far. I think as a club we have been gearing towards nice passing attacking football for a while now. Roman probably is playing a part in it but I doubt he woke up one day and thought "I want nice passing attacking football, sack the current manager and get me a manager who can do that". It's been around for some time.