Manchester United v MAN CITY – The PREVIEW: City’s Probable Team
24 Mar
Vincent Kompany will return after suspension to partner Martin Demichelis at the heart of defence, with Gael Clichy likely to step in for Aleks Kolarov on the left of the back four. James Milner performed superbly against Fulham at the weekend but his place on the right of an attacking trio is expected to go to Jesus Navas.
Sergio Aguero remains on the sidelines, although he is hopeful of returning in time to feature away to Arsenal in the next fixture, so if Edin Dzeko recovers from the illness which kept him out of the drubbing of Fulham, he’ll lead the line on his own. If the Bosnian is still suffering, then Alvaro Negredo will continue up front.
Here is the side Pellegrini could select:
Referee: Michael Oliver.
Prediction: Manchester United 1 – 2 MAN CITY – Derbies are notoriously difficult to predict, but taking emotion out of the equation, City are a better footballing side and should we apply ourselves, we ought to have the quality to prevail. I’m predicting goals to be scored by Samir Nasri, Alvaro Negredo and Wayne Rooney.
If ever a game needed James Milner this is it….he must start not only because he deserves to after a magnificent display on how to make important runs but he slotted in to support the rest of the team all over the pitch. He will be needed to defend as well as attack and his non-stop running will mean we are capable of overpowering them in midfield.
I would also start this one with Lescott but who am I to disagree with the manager.
I would not take off Navas for Milner in this game given that Evra who will play at the left back usually bombs forward. Navas can prove decisive at the counter attack. Also Navas is the style of player Evra fails to mark (see for example how bad Evra is against Lennon).
I hope we win the game. By football terms we are two levels above ManUnited but it is the Manchester Derby and a third consecutive loss at home will be hard to shallow. It will be a close one I believe but we will win if we play as we can. If we lose points at this stage it will be hard for the title given Chelsea’s easy schedule (just one derby away with Liverpool). I believe that we won’t win at Anfield so we must keep the 3 point difference until that match and then be crowned Champions.
So, there is only one option against our rivals, WIN! GO BOYS!
I’d like kolorov to start, he’s a better player than Clichy, who I’m not the biggest fan of, kolly as we know works very well with nasri & is always deadly dangerous with delivery/deadball, I agree with mike about j.m who I have a lot of time for, he very rarely let’s us down, not easy to pick the team, having said that navas can also cause problems for evra’s legs – demich needs to organies the back like he did at hull, yaya & dzeko need to WORK from the first minute dzeko in particular needs to roll up his sleeve’s, he’s a big powerful man who can become one of the most feared strikers in Europe if he applies himself, but attitude/work comes before glory.
Clichy has been a bit underwhelming this season, so yes I’d go for AK47 – but as it looks as though we’ll only be playing with one striker, I’d play Milner in front of him on the left to give additional support and throw both David and Samir down that right flank where we can be so devastating. Don’t defend, don’t go for breakaways, just attack, attack attack. Doesn’t matter if it’s Edin or Alvaro – they are both out of sorts at the moment. If he came through the 15 minutes against Fulham without any life-threatening injuries, I’d even go for Jovetic up front. He definitely owes us!!
Milner is a must.