19 hours ago, Gol15 said:

It's a final, the biggest one... We bottled the smaller ones so that Pep gets a false sense of security.

 

I think your GIF suggests we should send the spanish inquisition, not sure how that would help us but I'd like to see it anyway

1 hour ago, PloKoon13 said:

Just had a dream - it was a Man Utd - Man City Champions League Final which went to penalties. Marquinhos missed for Man Utd, and Rodri hit a fairly tame effort at Henderson which Bernardo Silva slotted in on the rebound. For some reason this was allowed to stand. Also Man Utd were still somehow in the Europa League Final against Villarreal. Not sure this is a sign of anything.

Sounds like your dream is more the tale of two penalties rather than a shoot out.

Our one is a miss and Cities is saved only for the rebound to be put in. For it to count suggests it was not a shoot out.

Perhaps Jorginho fluffs his lines or is dropped only to see Werner/Mount, our other takers, to miss the target.

I know I have said this before and will say it again, I hate facing English sides in European games. Totally takes the gloss off ot facing someone we play several times every season. 

Edited May 25, 20215 yr by axman2526

City is clear favourite here but it is a final and players are usually very nervous in finals. Anything can happen here. City players know they are clear favourites as well. 

32 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Our one is a miss and Cities is saved only for the rebound to be put in. For it to count suggests it was not a shoot out.

Definitely a shoot-out, I was loudly complaining about how ridiculous it was that nobody else (including the commentators) seemed to have spotted it.

We go in as underdogs which I am happy with, we seem to find a way when people have written us off.

For me it has been an incredible achievement to reach the final and we can be incredibly proud of the team with all the ups and downs.

I believe next season we will be far more consistent with new additions to the team and getting rid of the deadwood.

Two options for me 

Werner - Havertz 

Mount - Kante 

Jorgi 

Chilwell - Rudi - Silva - Azpi - James 

Or more defensive option 

Werner 

Mount 

Kova - Jorgi - Kante 

Chilwell - Rudi - Silva - Azpi - James 

 

3 hours ago, evissy said:

City is clear favourite here but it is a final and players are usually very nervous in finals. Anything can happen here. City players know they are clear favourites as well. 

True. City has more to lose than us. They are in better shape, they are the favourites, they have never won the CL. But if we play like we played against Villa, City will easily smash us.

Yeah, given the way we ended our season and the FA Cup fiasco, I am going into the CL final with no worries, since we are heavy underdogs, and the usual nervousness that I had when we played at the Luznicki stadium and at the Allianz arena is not there.  I like that part of it!

19 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Two options for me 

Werner - Havertz 

Mount - Kante 

Jorgi 

Chilwell - Rudi - Silva - Azpi - James 

Or more defensive option 

Werner 

Mount 

Kova - Jorgi - Kante 

Chilwell - Rudi - Silva - Azpi - James 

 

Has Christiansen been ruled out of the final?  I am hoping that he is available, and if so, I hope he starts.

57 minutes ago, Phillip said:

Has Christiansen been ruled out of the final?  I am hoping that he is available, and if so, I hope he starts.

Very interesting to see what happens if he is fit.

Andreas at CB Dave at RWB or Dave at CB and Reece at RWB?

Or just throw a Robbie and bring in a complete random to start ala Bertrand.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

Werner 

Mount 

Kova - Jorgi - Kante 

I'd be tempted to go with this.

Think we'd have good chances of keeping a clean sheet in that case. And then you would have to pray Werner or Mount could finish one of the chances they'd almost certainly get.

1 hour ago, Phillip said:

Has Christiansen been ruled out of the final?  I am hoping that he is available, and if so, I hope he starts.

Azpi is very2 good at one on one plus Chris hasn't played for a while. 

9 minutes ago, Sindre said:

I'd be tempted to go with this.

Think we'd have good chances of keeping a clean sheet in that case. And then you would have to pray Werner or Mount could finish one of the chances they'd almost certainly get.

I really can't decide should we go that defensive route or slightly more offensive. I personally like the 2nd option, it allow Kante (finger cross) to push up more.  Of course I assume mendy start otherwise my preferred lineup

Whatever 

Whatever 

Whatever 

Kepa - Caballero 

36 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

I really can't decide should we go that defensive route or slightly more offensive. I personally like the 2nd option, it allow Kante (finger cross) to push up more.  Of course I assume mendy start otherwise my preferred lineup

Whatever 

Whatever 

Whatever 

Kepa - Caballero 

It was commented in jest earlier in the thread that "basically, we are f*cked".

If Mendy and/or Kante is out, we certainly are.

Ok so I’ve said a few times I think our chances of winning our really slim, despite being optimistic about where we are going in general.

I’ve thought for a while that it’s City’s year. It’s preordained. But this is more than blind superstition. I think what it’s based on is a notion that to win the BIG ones you have to knock on the door first. (Applies to World Cups and Euros too. For example, France beaten finalists in euros in 2016, then winners of the WC in 2018.) 

We’ve been in the wilderness for a decade as far as the CL concerned. It’s pretty rare for a team to come out of nowhere and go all the way. This is a big difference vs 2012 when we had a team full of players that had gone close in recent memory, been in finals, semis, and that’s why I don’t agree with the 2012 comps. Back then it seemed preordained that we would win after THAT Barca semi..

ok, so City have hardly covered themselves in glory in the CL. But they’ve gone a lot closer than us. Lots of  QFs. It’s a big reason I think they will win. Anyone share this view, or think this is nonsense and got some counter examples?

Obviously I would be more over the moon than I can possibly imagine if Chelsea go and make a mockery of this notion on Saturday. 

I think our only chance here is, as has been suggested before, to rely on our defence and Mendy and hope we can knick one on the break, dont do anything stupid and hope KDB does not pull a rabbit out of his a$$.

 

With that in mind I know such a line up was put in jest but we have no options that can hurt City consistently so no reason to have our normal amount of attackers.

Work work work, is our best chance imo.

 

Mendy

 

Dave

Christensen

Silva

Rudiger

Alonso

 

Kante

Jorginho

Kovacic

 

Mount

 

Werner

 

Werner presses the defenders, mount the defensive midfielders. Kova or Kante support their respective fullback, jorginho sits as a shield before the back 5.

Long balls in to channels for Werner to chase,  with deeper support from Mount, hoping city make a mistake. No wingback action, they stay back and defend. Midfield 3 dont go past the halfway line.

With the back 5 hopefully we deal with set pieces better too.

I think that the form from the last matches has to do with qualifying for the Champions League final. There are many young players and it is difficult to keep them focused when the most important match they have ever played in their career is approaching. It's a unique chance that some of them will probably only meet once in a lifetime. It's hard to stay focused, not to think all the time about the match with City, not to be afraid of an injury that can lead to missing the final.

I'm not more afraid of the final than I was before. The recent results should not scare us too much. I don't think the players have lost confidence and we will make life difficult for the citizens on the 29th.

It's already an achievement that we've come this far. It's a final, anything can happen. It wasn't something we could have imagined a few months ago. So we have to wait for the final with a smile on our face, trusting the players and coaches because they made this possible. Hope they will make us proud in the end.

26 minutes ago, Dragos said:

 It's a unique chance that some of them will probably only meet once in a lifetime. It's hard to stay focused, not to think all the time about the match with City, not to be afraid of an injury that can lead to missing the final.

If I was manager that would be part of my motivational pre-match speech along the lines of don't leave anything on the pitch go out and give it all as at this time you may never get another chance. 

We go into the game knowing City will attack us. That probably suits Tuchel as we generally seem to do better when set up to defend and hit teams on the counter. The games we have struggled in under Tuchel we have had to take a more attacking approach. Even if City score first I doubt they will change their tactics. if anything they will try to score more, as that is typically their style. So while this a risk of getting beaten comfortably if things go badly, we should be able to use Tuchel's preferred system throughout the game. It really comes down to defending well as a team, but also taking our chances on the counter. If we can do both City may find themselves in a spot of bother.

Seeing so many negative line ups. 5 at the back , 3 holding midfielders ! wtf lets play our usual system let our defenders defend and our attackers attack and see where it takes us.

would hate to see us lose with a pathetic whimper!

Just now, turnyitb said:

Seeing so many negative line ups. 5 at the back , 3 holding midfielders ! wtf lets play our usual system let our defenders defend and our attackers attack and see where it takes us.

would hate to see us lose with a pathetic whimper!

Our attackers dont attack though, they dither on the ball, pass it backwards, take air shots and only score when they are offside.

Our last 4 games all 3 goals scored by defenders and a defensive midfielder.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

Our attackers dont attack though, they dither on the ball, pass it backwards, take air shots and only score when they are offside.

Our last 4 games all 3 goals scored by defenders and a defensive midfielder.

well then the law of averages says its due to change lol

Just now, turnyitb said:

well then the law of averages says its due to change lol

Yeah we have been saying that about Timo and Kai since November  lol.

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

If I was manager that would be part of my motivational pre-match speech along the lines of don't leave anything on the pitch go out and give it all as at this time you may never get another chance. 

I agree with you. But even in psychology sessions, those who have gone through similar situations respond better to therapy.

23 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Lol never know a player so proficient at scoring offside goals. Even in the last game he stays onside and it is dave that costs him the goal lol.

See, progress!