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Give Bravo a bit of leeway. Being a goalkeeper is so much about being settled and Bravo clearly isn't yet, and it will affect every aspect of his game. Yes, he is a liability at the moment but so was De Gea when he first joined United. Same goes for Karius, who has had a lot of criticism in the media for minor mistakes with no consequence.

There's been some quality goals tonight - Sanchez, Walcott, Robben, Zivkovic, Hahn.

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The Bravo sending off really screwed things up for City. They did create some good chances though but were nowhere near as clinical as Barca and ended up getting beaten heavily. I think Pep got it wrong by not starting Aguero - I know he does like this 'false nine' business but leaving a world class #9 on the bench in order to to that seems counter-productive. I hope he doesn't do this again in the next game against Barca.

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27 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said:

Give Bravo a bit of leeway. Being a goalkeeper is so much about being settled and Bravo clearly isn't yet, and it will affect every aspect of his game. Yes, he is a liability at the moment but so was De Gea when he first joined United. Same goes for Karius, who has had a lot of criticism in the media for minor mistakes with no consequence.

There's been some quality goals tonight - Sanchez, Walcott, Robben, Zivkovic, Hahn.

The difference though is that De Gea was only 20/21 when he joined United and Karius is what? 23? Mistakes are more forgiveable when it is a young, inexperienced GK. Not so when it is a seasoned campaigner like Bravo.

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3 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

The difference though is that De Gea was only 20/21 when he joined United and Karius is what? 23? Mistakes are more forgiveable when it is a young, inexperienced GK. Not so when it is a seasoned campaigner like Bravo.

If they are still happening in a few months then yes, but I think this could happen to any keeper on joining a new club - especially when it is in a new country and with a language I doubt he speaks. De Gea and Karius were very consistent for Atleti and Mainz before their moves so there must be something more to it than just their youth.

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6 hours ago, Mexal said:

So Arsenal played well...

Looking really confident atm.  Even Walcott smashing in a goal from 20 yards like that's something he does.  

Kind of amazing that Ramsey, Wilshire, Giroud and Welbeck are missing and the team looks better without them, with no major signing replacing any of them (ok, possibly count Xhaka as a replacement for Wilshire even though he's a very different player). 

I would worry though that losing Ozil or Sanchez to any injury or fatigue would disrupt them badly and take away a lot of these goals.   

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13 hours ago, Consigliere said:

The Bravo sending off really screwed things up for City. They did create some good chances though but were nowhere near as clinical as Barca and ended up getting beaten heavily. I think Pep got it wrong by not starting Aguero - I know he does like this 'false nine' business but leaving a world class #9 on the bench in order to to that seems counter-productive. I hope he doesn't do this again in the next game against Barca.

I agree. While I'm sure Barca would have won this game eventually, it could have been much closer.

City were sloppy and it was probably wrong to bench Aguero. I agree with you on the whole "false nine" thing, that is such a Guardiola thing but oftentimes it does not work. It certainly did not work when he tried to make Gotze his Messi at Bayern and taking off his real striker for Gotze. Messi is unique, and Gotze has nowhere near that level of skill.

Same here, Aguero should play.

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7 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Looking really confident atm.  Even Walcott smashing in a goal from 20 yards like that's something he does.  

Kind of amazing that Ramsey, Wilshire, Giroud and Welbeck are missing and the team looks better without them, with no major signing replacing any of them (ok, possibly count Xhaka as a replacement for Wilshire even though he's a very different player). 

I would worry though that losing Ozil or Sanchez to any injury or fatigue would disrupt them badly and take away a lot of these goals.   

I think it's fair to say that if we lost one or two of our best players (Sanchez/Ozil), we'd not be as good a team as we are now with them in good form. And I think that's normal.

For now though, I think we have great balance to our play with enough squad depth to not see a big drop off if we rotate 3-4 players  in a game. Lucas Perez looked good in his short cameo, Gibbs looked as good as Monreal, Elneny has a non stop engine and does a great job keeping possession and Coquelin was a force. Even Chamberlain looked good! Granted this was Ludogorets but gotta win those games too.

Not sure Wilshere has a place here anymore and I don't think Ramsey provides the same level of balance that we get from Coquelin/Xhaka/Cazorla/Elneny in CM so no idea where he'll fit. Giroud is a good second striker but as a side, we've looked so much better with Sanchez more or less playing a false nine that I think I'd rather see Lucas play centrally if we're going to rotate Sanchez. 

7 PL wins in a row and we've won 9 of our last 10 in all comps (draw against PSG). Hope we can continue to win (not draw) before our inevitable form dip.

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2 hours ago, Mexal said:

I don't think Ramsey provides the same level of balance that we get from Coquelin/Xhaka/Cazorla/

Imo, that second midfield spot beside Cazorla is up for grabs at the moment. Coquelin just about shades it ahead of Xhaka for me. That being said, we still haven't seen Ramsey/ Xhaka in the middle yet. 
 

Just catching the City - Barcelona highlights - Stones and Otamendi were pretty abysmal, some very bad defending. 

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I have seen only part of last night's match but from what I've seen, Stones looked way out of his depth.

To be honest, not many defenders could handle that attacking trio, but he looked as if City were a player short and took someone from a Sunday league team they saw playing on their way to the airport.

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47 minutes ago, Raja said:

Imo, that second midfield spot beside Cazorla is up for grabs at the moment. Coquelin just about shades it ahead of Xhaka for me. That being said, we still haven't seen Ramsey/ Xhaka in the middle yet. 

It is up for grabs but that's between Coquelin/Xhaka. I think behind Cazorla, it's down to Ramsey/Elneny and I'd argue that Elneny is better for the balance of the team. I know we haven't seen Ramsey/Xhaka together but I've seen Ramsey in the middle a lot over the past few years and I know how he can be. He's not as disciplined as Cazorla, nor will he move the ball as quickly or accurately. He's also not as good in tight spots and is more prone to make mistakes in bad positions leaving us susceptible to the counter. I think he throws off the balance though he does add more to the offensive side if he ever reverts to goal scoring form which we've only seen for a part of a single season. I'm good with him coming on to be a difference maker, but he's not a starter anymore at CM and for me, not even first off bench for rotation. I'd much prefer him to be purely offensive on the right, coming in for Walcott/Chamberlain or Iwobi and allowing him to combine/interchange with the front three of Ozil/Sanchez/X.

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8 hours ago, Calibandar said:

I agree. While I'm sure Barca would have won this game eventually, it could have been much closer.

City were sloppy and it was probably wrong to bench Aguero. I agree with you on the whole "false nine" thing, that is such a Guardiola thing but oftentimes it does not work. It certainly did not work when he tried to make Gotze his Messi at Bayern and taking off his real striker for Gotze. Messi is unique, and Gotze has nowhere near that level of skill.

Same here, Aguero should play.

I think Pep is forcing a system on the players.  KDB isn't a good fit for a false 9.  Sterling would probably be better.  As much as Pep might like that system, if you don't have Firmino and Lallana (or Sanchez) but you do have Aguero, KDB and Silva, then forget about playing the false 9 system and play to the strength of the best talent you have.

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I watched about 35 minutes of the 1st half (Southampton/Inter) and returned to the game about midway through the second. Can't believe Southampton didn't win. They were all over Inter for a large portion of the game - at least the parts I actually watched.

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