THE Manchester Derby 16/17

Curtinho wrote:

That said not sure why he's writing off Matip who has looked fantastic so far and is very talented and Lovren who has performed at a high level in the PL before and has performed at a high level under Klopp in general. Both are better than Sakho.

Is either of them remotely related to France?

Firenze wrote:Stones isn't better than Smalling, Smalling is who Sstones wants to be ffs.

Nobody wants to be Smalling, Captain Delusion.

How can we possibly know, none of these clubs plan in the long term and half of the current squad will be gone in two years.

Benitez came sometime after Mourinho at Chelsea, Inter and Madrid. Will we see Benitez at United?

If so, then its clear City has the brighter future.

rincon wrote:Benitez came sometime after Mourinho at Chelsea, Inter and Madrid. Will we see Benitez at United?

THIS WILL BE THE BEST BANTER EVER

Firenze wrote:Stones isn't better than Smalling, Smalling is who Sstones wants to be ffs.

Yes he is.

It's funny how underrated Stones is on this forum just because clubs want to pay lots of money for him , he was fantastic the year before he last and nobody batted an eyelid when Chelsea wanted him to replace Terry.

Yet now he's some scrub because he had an underwhelming season as a teenager under probably the worst manager in the top leagues when it comes to defensive organisation.

The man makes Brendan Rodgers look like Simeone, he's noticeably looked much better under Guardiola like Sterling has. To the point that City noticeably looked worse in their last game when Stones went off with injury, they lost all composure and looked all over the place.

As i said before the season started, you'll see lol.

Nice preview.

At 2:45, Carra moved the DM back when City already had a 2v1 advantage.

Tbf Blind > Stones at the moment. (Stones might become a top cb but I am talking about right now.) Its just that nobody wants to admit that. The guy can do everything Stones does and more. He is a better defender + better passer. One of the most underrated players in the world at the moment easily.



Subs; Bravo, Bailly, Smalling, Fellaini, KdB, Martial, Rashford

It's great to provide Xabi Alonso a few good years now at the end of his career, with him learning German, getting familiar with the club, becoming part of the family.

We are always in need of good coaches and I can see Alonso becoming one.

Before Stones joined City I had only seen the odd youtube compilation of him, but my oh my is he comfortable on the ball. He looks so relaxed and composed. Even more than guys like Boateng, Hummels, Pique, and Bonucci. I love the way he holds onto the ball just for a few extra seconds so the opposition can press him, but he then passes it to an open player ( who the opposing player was formerly marking) beside him. He’s so good at doing that.

Stones’ defending is quite the debate. Some say it’s because of the system Martinez had in place, others say he isn’t that good at defending, but rest assured he’ll improve in that regard in the next few years. He’s merely 22, so him having that weakness isn’t surprising.

A great signing for City.

Hapless_Hans wrote:It's great to provide Xabi Alonso a few good years now at the end of his career, with him learning German, getting familiar with the club, becoming part of the family.

We are always in need of good coaches and I can see Alonso becoming one.

Benitez, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Del Bosque, Aragones, and Guardiola. He was coached by all of them. Considering he's a top player himself, it won't be surprising if he becomes a top coach too. He's had quite the education.

Casciavit wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:It's great to provide Xabi Alonso a few good years now at the end of his career, with him learning German, getting familiar with the club, becoming part of the family.

We are always in need of good coaches and I can see Alonso becoming one.

Benitez, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Del Bosque, Aragones, and Guardiola. He was coached by all of them. Considering he's a top player himself, it won't be surprising if he becomes a top coach too. He's had quite the education.

Exactly. And he's got the personality and, from the sound of it, brains to do it.
Strategic midfielder type, smart, likeable personality, good with languages, trained under all these coaches, I'd take a bet he'll become a good coach.

He gets along nicely with Lahm and Müller so that will help later when they form part of our board

Casciavit wrote:Before Stones joined City I had only seen the odd youtube compilation of him, but my oh my is he comfortable on the ball. He looks so relaxed and composed. Even more than guys like Boateng, Hummels, Pique, and Bonucci. I love the way he holds onto the ball just for a few extra seconds so the opposition can press him, but he then passes it to an open player ( who the opposing player was formerly marking) beside him. He’s so good at doing that.

Stones’ defending is quite the debate. Some say it’s because of the system Martinez had in place, others say he isn’t that good at defending, but rest assured he’ll improve in that regard in the next few years. He’s merely 22, so him having that weakness isn’t surprising.

A great signing for City.

Honestly he can obviously get better at defending as he's only 22 but he's much, much better at it already than most want to give him credit for.

As i said before he had a fantastic season the year before last and it looked like he was going to go to Chelsea, it was only then people started shitting on him.

It was nothing but praise until he got linked with big money moves and obviously he was underwhelming last season which didn't help but everyone is acting like he's never been good at any stage.

Same thing happened with Shaw as well, he was starting to finally get the respect before injury that he was receiving before he was linked with big money moves. Some still don't but most people realise it and they'll do the same with Stones.

For some reason most football fans love to discredit young players once they get linked with money they are not perceived to have earned.

I don't think it's purposefully discrediting, it's that people look at them with a more critical eye because they're trying to discern whether they're good enough for a top club, so any time they make a mistake it's blown out of proportion--and young players make mistakes, they're young after all.

CBarca wrote:I don't think it's purposefully discrediting, it's that people look at them with a more critical eye because they're trying to discern whether they're good enough for a top club, so any time they make a mistake it's blown out of proportion--and young players make mistakes, they're young after all.

Let's not forget as well that Stones had a very well publicised "Let me leave" type transfer saga last summer with Chelsea, in the wake of which he made a number of pretty catastrophic individual mistakes while still being firmly in the spotlight due to the transfer request story.

CITY XI | Bravo, Sagna, Otamendi, Stones, Kolarov, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Silva (C), Sterling, Nolito, Iheanacho

Split some posts for this thread.


Big game. Can't wait

Hopefully this is a 4-4 draw with 3 red cards, 2 eye pokes and Mourinho doing a chained gesture with pep choking sterling post match

Let's see how Bravo does #justice4joe

I rushed home to watch it but I had the time wrong, god damn GMT

Well it's only 15 mins left anyways

Pep having a bit of a go at the interviewer because he's asking legitimate questions

Hope he loses

Not sure who to support

I hope City wins but I don't think so. Mou is a proven winner tho, that's why I'm worried

Not that Pep is a loser, but Mou figures a way to win these games after a while. Maybe not the first time but after a while this will be easy for Mou

I am personally supporting Mark Clattenburg