LondonBlue

so you're saying.... Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Dias, Ake/Guardiol Rodri, Kovacic Alvarez, Foden, Grealish Haaland bench: Ortega, Carson -Lewis, Stones, Guardiol/Ake - Nunes, Gomez, Doku, Bobb on RB Leipzig bench: Phillips .... yeah fair shout, you may be right

No chance, we're still trying to figure out how to play without De Bruyne. Hopefully the man that is John Stones will get a few minutes in a comfortable win tonight but i'm nervous about our chances later.

quite fancy watching your game. unfortunately its on at the same time as ours. thats a champions league scheduling balls up in my eyes. domestic sides should kick off at different times.

I'm a white, man city supporting stockport lad living in london, the wifes a brown, man united supporting yorkshire lass. we get some stick from the southern folk. (had to add a comma between brown and man as it looked really weird) (i use the words lad and lass very loosely as i'm nearly 60)

when we played psg they couldn't handle intensity, pressure. They're used to having time on the ball. A by-product of no competition in france i guess. press them like you did us in the second half the other week and they have mistakes in them.

Rawk and the sadcafe are always fun. I don't have an account there as i'd get barred in next to no time. Can't stand dippers although blue dippers are fine, no problem with the rags either. Living in London i don't get to go to as many games as i'd like. Next game is Bournemouth with my eldest, then Young Boys in the Champions league a few days later. Involves the wife and youngest coming north too so she can take my eldest back for school. I have to take time off too. We best win. The amount of grief i get from my old school mates etc for sounding like a southerner. It wouldn't be so bad but people down here give me grief for sounding like a northerner. But then we're all southerners to you guys.

Neither has ours. We were uninvited and they're still doing their best to kick us out for crashing the party.

There's always gonna be people biased towards their own club on their own forum. I've definitely seen an upturn in plastics on our forum the last few years. Plus rags and dippers masquerading as blues to cause mischief. New people with now now now views shouting over the top of the older generation. I don't know. Some of the above is right. There was definitely a mix of "we want to win it all" and "its only the league cup" before the game that obviously swung towards the latter after. I did think the sky line about famous victory was a bit much, after all we were knocked out by another champions league club. I'm not sure i sense much hatred for newcastle amongst city fans in the flesh. The people i know recognize you've had some rough years much like we had. That said, keyboard warriors are a different breed though. We did put out a decent side, that played ok in the first half, but carried no real threat. I think you realised that and went for it with some gusto after the break. It's true I certainly would have fancied our chances more against you if most of Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Rodri, Bernado, De Bruyne, Haaland had been on the pitch. But they weren't so. In my defense, i came on here before the game and pretty much predicted what happened. I didn't come on afterwards as i was gutted,

It's taken us a good few years to produce worthy players and most of those get sold to provide funds.

i don't care how upset you guys might be with your line up, at least you don't have the tortoise that is Kalvin Phillips. I like the guy but he just looks lost in our midfield.

Didnt expect Grealish or Kovacic to start. Thought they'd be late fitness minutes. Doubt they'll stay on. Glad little Oscar Bobb is getting a start.

Chose a bad night to put up the new TV. Took the old one down (everything was blue tinted which i had naturally assumed was my vision). Took the bracket off. Went to attach the bracket to the new TV and it needs different bolts. Not supplied. Still time....

Oh they'll still be desperate to win. I just don't think we can afford any new injuries. It would be nice if you're players remember that we're oil baron brothers and play extra nice

think we're there for the taking. not sure what sort of injuries you have but i'd go strong if i was you. My guess... Ortega - Lewis Akanji Guardiol Ake - Nunes Phillips Gomez - bobb alvarez doku bench (only 8 named not 9): 2 keepers, grealish & kovacic (for some late fitness minutes) , foden, dias, haaland, walker injured/banned: bernado, rodri, stones, kdb Pep might go a little stronger, but with Arsenal away on the horizon and a "paper thin" squad he might put faith in a weaker team

It's high quality paper though

I like you're opener. I agree it's kind of a bizarre discussion and i'm so grateful for everything we have. But sometimes we have to chat based on where we are to day rather than where we were in the 1998/199 season. This season we're in 7 competitions... Community Shield (got scolded above for classing a trophy as lesser so listing them all now) , Premier league, the Super Cup, the World Club, the League cup, the Champions League and the FA Cup. If we go deep in all we'll be playing a heck of a lot of games. We submitted a 20 man squad to the Premier League. Rico Lewis 18, Guardiol 21, Doku 21, Oscar Bobb 20 not on it so it's really 23 (as i don't count Bobb yet) Haaland, Alvarez, Foden, Doku, Silva all started at West Ham. With KDB, Stones, Kovacic and Grealish all sidelined, then playing those 5 week in week out means a weaker bench etc yadda yadda yadda. Personally i'd play the strongest available 11 for the opposition in every game. As an aside, an article in the mirror (i think) described us as being saudi state owned. They don't even try and get their facts right these days.

Don't get me wrong Pep will be desperate to win every piece of silverware going. But with De Bruyne, Stones, Grealish and Kovacic all key men missing we can ill afford another key injury. So expect to see Kalvin Phillips start. If he starts then the newspaper article is right, if he doesn't start then i'm not sure when he ever will. The game is sandwiched between Forest and Wolves so its possible that he goes strong against you and weaker in one of those games.

Not sure where to post this as the match thread title isn't up yet... but it seems Pep won't risk his key players in the league cup game with you guys. We have serious injuries and a paper thin squad, so they'll get rest in the lesser competition.

That's just a phase. We went through it when we bought players in over market value on high salaries then couldn't unload as we improved. Rocky Santa Cruz, Jo, it was a long list.

As a city fan can i just add that pretty much all city fans seem to agree that we expected Ake's goal to be offside. Our good luck came in a game I think we would have won anyway. Our bad luck, Rashfords offside against us last season came in a difficult game. That's not evened itself out in my blue tinted eyes. I like VAR as it's better than the olden days, but i'd prefer it if it could be fully automated. No biased VAR dudes hidden away, listening to a supposed agenda. And any contentious decisions raised by the fully automated VAR dealt with by the referee and the monitor. As a software developer I would be happy to help develop this fully automated VAR system 😏

As a city fan i've pretty much grown up doing the 40 point maths every week. it was ingrained in me. no more though. the worst year was when we thought we were safe as long as we didn't concede. so we knocked the ball around at the back in the final minutes of the season. not realising that we needed to score to stay up!!

Are guys still breathing a huge sigh of relief at the 40 point mark? took me years!

for some reason that makes me feel a lot better

It happened whilst i was on holiday so nothing i could do. we wanted him to stay but he wants game time and thinks he'll get it at chelsea. he won't get the fan backing from them that he did from us, being one of our own. mind you i have a feeling he might be a red by birth! especially given he's cost them a fair few bob. i see him as an inferior english version of Joao Felix but the potential is there to be better. brilliant even. but who should play fewer minutes for us to accomadate more minutes for him. probably a good deal all round. still feel sad about it though

stayed respectfully quiet. fans of the same team argue about incidents whatever the result so opposing fans have no chance. but sod it. thought our squad was threadbare and in the last 20 we looked tired and ragged. Not surprising after the sevilla game. our bench meant we stuck with same 11 for 90mins. looked like our plan was to starve you of the ball and win it back quick if lost (kind of the usual plan). Stops us conceding. Peps been giving Foden experience across the front three as he's not ready defensively for midfield. I think in the academy he was a 10 and the usual know it alls would say he carried the ball like messi. more than a bit of a stretch but hes ok and may get a run there now. feared the worst when rodri misjudged a pass and you were 3 against 1. Gvardiol did well but you should have scored. And Rodri has plenty of credit in the bank so i forgive him. actually i feared the worst before the game. we just seem light on creativity at the moment. can't afford any injuries there. hopefully bernado silvas illness isn't a cover for a departure. seen a lot of hate for grealish. i get it after that comment a season or so back but he's a good lad. that clip of him stopping to shake that disabled girls hand on the way for his medal is standard for him. he's just a big kid that gets a bit giddy at times. carries the ball and draws fouls.