Plzen and Utd. - what's more important?

This is a tough week for us. We cannot afford to lose either game but, if we want to progress in both competitions, we really need to be winning both of them.

Bayern and CSKA may well win at home and away against Plzen so we need to be doing the same. If we draw or lose tonight then I fear we will struggle to get out of the group.

Losing to Utd would be bad enough but we'd be 3 points behind them and they've had a tough start. First 5 games and they've played Liverpool, Chelsea and City so they'd be well pleased with a point at our place.

How to go about picking teams for these two matches? Is Kompany fit? Is Clichy fit? Is Silva fit?

I'd like us to put our strongest team out tonight and pummel Plzen 1st half. If we can secure a decent lead, we can rest players in the 2nd half. When I say decent lead, I mean 3-0. A 2-0 lead could lead to jitters if they got a goal back and we certainly don't want that.

I said this last season but, until we are good enough and experienced enough, I want our best team to play each and every match. If we'd beaten Stoke on Saturday, maybe we'd have been happy with a point against Utd.

I'd go for it, I dare say that tonight should be a walk in the park in terms of keeping the ball and winning comfortably (2/3-0). Who knows though! There are not exactly many easy games in the UCL. 

I'd definitely play Kompany and Clichy, hopefully they shouldn't be strained too much at the back so could be a good run out for the them to get fit for United. Strong team tonight, I'd play the team tonight that I was looking to pick for United.

I think that people are underestimating Plzen, they have beaten some good teams in the Europa League Atletico Madrid and Napoli for a start so to think that they are the club equivalent of San Marino would be a big mistake. Having said that i do believe that we have to fly out of the traps from the whistle and have a right good go at them because if we sit back and have our usual slow tippy tappy start with no width and sit too deep at the back then i can see them scoring first and making it very hard for us. The trouble with the back 4 playing a high line and the midfield pressing is that i only feel comfortable with that when Vinny is playing. Lescott is too slow and Garcia is a nightmare at CB. Long balls over the top or defence splitting passes to a lively forward would cause problems with Lescott and Garcia in my view.

I'm not underestimating Plzen, just that we have to beat them home and away to have a chance in this group.

Exactly Dawg, I just say go for it, no tippy tappy pedestrian keep ball.  We need high tempo high energy that we know we are capable of and just blow them off the park.

Trouble is we have not seen that team since the championship winning season.   I can live in hope though.

Sack the CL, we've got five other games we can get results in if we turn on the skill.  I'd rather play for a point at Plzen and save ourselves for that mob.  Can you imagine what they'd be like if they were ahead of us after their harder start?  They'd be unbearable!  I don't know about anyone else, but I don't personally know any Czechs who'll dish it out and I do know plenty of raggies.

So yeah, let's save ourselves for dishing out a whipping to that red lot.  If we bag a win at Plzen, so much the better, but frankly I'll take whatever we get in that game.

But would that be worse than the same rags +dippers, spuds, gooners etc dishing it out about a third failed attempt to get out of a CL group and arguably an easier one than the last 2?

Plzen have won 11 of their last 12 home games. I don't expect this to be a walk-over whatsover....I can see them defending deep and hitting us on the break, therefore, we have 2 options:

We got at them from the first minute and we win 3 or 4-1,

or

we sit back and play them at their own game....and maybe nick it 2-1, 1-0.

Either way, it calls for our strongest line-up IMO.

Hart

Zab
Vinny
Nasty
Clichy

Yaya
Milner
Silva
Navas

Aguero
Negredo

I see our EDS beat Plzen 4-1 last night........maybe they should play again tonight and save our lot for the scum?

I thought they played this morning?

Anyways, I thought Silva was injured. I expect Dzeko and Fernandinho to start tonight.

No Clichy anyway.....he stayed behind, so looks like we are stuck with Kockorov at LB.....here's hoping he doesn't have a hard night defending and he gets at least 10 free-kicks on the edge of their area to make up for his ineptitude at defending!

Yeah, your right, no Silva either!!

OK:

Hart

Zab
Vinny
Nasty
Kockorov

Yaya
Fernando

Milner
Navas

Aguero
and i'm going for............
Dzeko!

Think we'll be playing the counter attacking game away from home, unless Plzen sit back and invite us on, they're the home team, on a good winning streak at home, so I expect they'll be offensive.
But I really don't know! Still waiting for The City we saw against Newcastle turn up, and turn it on, will tonight be that night? If Vinny is back, then we will be far more solid, and confident at the back.
2-0 awa win, Yaya, Aguero

ManCityMan wrote:But would that be worse than the same rags +dippers, spuds, gooners etc dishing it out about a third failed attempt to get out of a CL group and arguably an easier one than the last 2?

Well, yeah, there is that...  But we can quickly shut the dippers and spuds up by simply stating that we're at least IN the competition.  And we won't have failed to get out of the group by losing the first game either.  You never know, CSKA might beat Bayern and then all bets are off.

You never know, CSKA might beat Bayern and then all bets are off.

They might stuff us home and away as well! who knows?

I guessed Kolarov was going to start because he was at the press conference. We could do with a new LB in January. I think we should have let Kolarov go to Italy and got Baines in for around £15M. At least we'd have two quality players fighting for one position.

Isn't the general perception that Bayern will be qualified after four games and it's basically us against CSKA for the other qualifying place?  That being the case, if CSKA beat Bayern, they'll have bagged three points from what is pretty much their hardest game, making our job much harder.

Still, let's see what happens this week...