Tag Archive for Pre-match

Pre-match | Man City v Watford

September 13, 2015 admin About the club, Matches No comments

Manchester City v Watford FC

Date: 15:00pm, Saturday 29th August 2015
Visit the club|Etihad Stadium|Parking| Contact + 44 161 444 1894
Travel Links:AA Road watch|Rail Travel News|Flight Information|Metrolink service
Please be advised that travel may be impacted by the Gay Pride event on in town on Saturday. There are still issues with travel along the Mancunian way – thanks @squirtyflower for the travel info

Battle of last years’ bridesmaids; Manchester City (2nd Barclays Premier League 2014/15) welcome Watford FC (2nd Sky Bet Championship 2014/15) to the Etihad stadium. The two sides have only met competitively 20 times in their history which is surprising when you consider Watford were formed in 1881 and Manchester city founded in 1894 (St Mark’s 1880). City could set a club record ten consecutive wins if they achieve victory in this match after equalling the record with a victory against Everton! Man City have significantly strengthened the defensive side of squad with the signing of Ottamendi. The transfer of De Bruyne still appears on the horizon in what has been a spectacular transfer window for the blues. Watford have been very busy in the transfer market and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few more additions before the window slams shut.

MCFC SQUAD NEWS

Squad Information -Injuries/Suspensions

Squad (from):Caballero, Hart, Wright, Demichelis, Denayer, Kolarov, Kompany, Mangala, Sagna, Fernandinho, Delph, Lopes, Nasri, Navas, Silva, Toure, Aguero, Iheanacho
Injured:Clichy, Zabaleta, Fernando, Bony

WATFORD SQUAD NEWS

Squad Information - Injuries/Suspensions

Squad (from): Gomes, Gilmartin, Arlauskis Nyom, Britos, Angella, Prödl, Paredes, Cathcart, Pudil, Layun, Holebas, Belkalem, Aké, Jurado, Behrami, Anya, Abdi, Watson, Capoue, Dyer, Deeney, Vydra , Forestieri, Berghuis, Ighalo, Diamanti
Injured:Doyley, Ekstrand

KEY BATTLES

City and Watford have both faced Everton and WBA this season in games where City have achieved 2 wins where Watford managed 2 draws. Before the Everton game City had achieved 38 shots this season (highest in Premier league) compared to 27 shots from Watford!

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A key fixture in the first few games was the link up play between Silva, Sterling and Kolarov – here we can see their combined heat map. The trickery of the trio may be too much too handle for Cameroon defender Nyon who made 100% of his tackles (5) vs Everton (all tackles made in deep right back position). I expect we will see a similar positional performance from Nyom as we seen in the Everton game and expect his forward momentum will be greatly restricted.

Silva, Sterling and Kolarov Heatmap vs Chelsea(left) and West Brom (right)

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Nyom Heatmap first 2 matches – Everton (left) and West Bron (right)

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Étienne Capoue signed for a Club Record fee of 6M this season and has started well despite not being able to previously force his way into the Spurs team with only 24 appearances. I expect Watford to sit deep and Capoue and Behrami to sit directly in front of the back 4 in an attempt to shield Prödl and Cathcart.

I expect Behrami to start but not finish the game; Behrami has fantastic work-rate and is a robust, skilful, solid player but very aggressive, a rash tackler and at times can be a hothead. The intricate passing and direct driving runs of YaYa will cause many problems and he may struggle well when restricted to minimal ball possession leading to frustration. The stats don’t back this up as he has never seen two yellows to lead to red and only 2 reds in his football career so perhaps this should just be classed as a hunch. He tends to receive a yellow every 4 games so perhaps I am doing him a discredit but feel that the overall power of Man City in central midfield will be a determining power in the outcome of this match.

POTENTIAL LINE UPS

I expect Man City will start with the same 11 players who have achieved 3 wins, 8 goals and 0 conceded in the first 3 matches of the season.

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LAST 10 FIXTURES

MANAGER HEAD TO HEAD

Quique Flores replaced Slavisa Jokanovic despite Watford achieving Premier League promotion at the start of the 2015 season and this will be the first head to head between the 2 managers in England. Flores is the 5th Watford manager in the space of ten months in what has been a turbulent period of managerial change; Watford Football club will surely be hoping for improved stability with Flores at the reigns.

Watford Managers in last 10 months

Pellegrini is a vastly more experienced manager with 27 years experience compared to 11 years for Flores. The 2 managers are very familiar and have had many duals in La Liga; Pellegrini as manager of Villareal, Real Madrid & Malaga and Flores as manager of Getafe, Valencia & Atlético Madrid. Pellegrini has had substantially more success with 9 wins to 3 and 1 draw between the managers.

LaLiga Head To Head

  • 01/05/2005 Primera División 2004/2005 – Villarreal 4v0 Getafe
  • 12/12/2004 Primera División 2004/2005 – Getafe 1v2 Villarreal
  • 05/11/2005 Primera División 2005/2006 – Villareal 1v0 Valencia
  • 04/01/2006 Copa del Rey 2005/2006 – Villareal 0v2 Valencia
  • 11/01/2006 Copa del Rey 2005/2006 – Valencia 1v0 Villarreal
  • 22/03/2006 Primera División 2005/2006 – Valencia 1v1 Villarreal
  • 07/01/2007 Primera División 2006/2007 – Villareal 1v0 Valencia
  • 26/05/2007 Primera División 2006/2007 – Valencia 2v3 Villarreal
  • 26/08/2007 Primera División 2007/2008 – Valencia 0v3 Villarreal
  • 07/11/2009 Primera División 2009/2010 – Atlético Madrid 2v3 Real Madrid
  • 28/03/2010 Primera División 2009/2010 – Real Madrid 3v2 Atlético Madrid
  • 19/12/2010 Primera División 2010/2011 – Málaga 0v3 Atlético Madrid
  • 07/05/2011 Primera División 2010/2011 – Atlético Madrid 0v3 Málaga

Referee Appointments

REFEREE:
Mark Clattenburg

ASST. REF. 1: S Beck

ASST. REF. 2: J Collin

4TH OFFICIAL: J Adcock

BETTING ODDS

Oddchecker

Manchester City record win against Watford is 3v0; looking at the odds the bookies think this could be beaten, with best odds only @ 4-1 for Man City to win by 4 Or More Goals

Pre-match | Everton v Man City

September 13, 2015 admin About the club, Matches No comments

Everton FCv Manchester City
Date: 16.00pm, Sunday 23rd August 2015

Guide for visiting supporters |Getting to Goodison|Contact + 44 151 556 1878
Travel Links: AA Road watch Manchester | AA Road watch Liverpool| Rail Travel News

MCFC SQUAD NEWS - Squad Information -Injuries/Suspensions

Squad (from): Caballero, Hart, Wright, Demichelis, Denayer, Clichy, Kolarov, Kompany, Mangala, Sagna, Fernandinho, Fernando, Lopes, Nasri, Navas, Silva, Toure, Aguero, Bony, Iheanacho

Injured: Fernando,Delph, Zabaleta

Everton SQUAD NEWS - Squad Information -Injuries/Suspensions

Squad (from): Robles, Howard, Stanek, Stones, Jagielka, Coleman, Browning, Galloway, Oviedo, Cleverley, McCarthy, Barry, Barkley, Deulofeu, Besic, Osman, Kone, Lukaku, Mirallas, Naismith, McAleny

Injured: Baines, Gibson, McGeady, Pienaar, Hibbert

PREDICTED LINE UPS

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Sagna deserves to retain the right back spot but think Zabaleta may be used for this game.

MATCH ANALYSIS AND KEY BATTLES 

Manchester City and Everton are both going into this game on a high after 3v0 wins against direct competitors. Manchester City were dominant against Chelsea; a fantastic team performance causing many pundits to reconsider who the title favourites are. The fans witnessed a record attendance at the Etihad and were treated to fluid, progressive, attacking flowing football; an absolute joy to watch! Aguero on his return was fired up, a constant threat, lead the line and scored a passing accuracy of 95%; misplacing one pass the entire game. David Silva sang “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” as he danced around the Chelsea midfield, he ran circles round Matic and Ramires all game much to their fristration. The Chelsea midfield and attack whimpered “A pocket full of posies; A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down” as they looked to exploit the leniency shown by Atkinson.

Everton played brilliantly, utilizing the counter attack excellently in what was always a tough away fixture against Southampton. Lukaku exhibited why he is one of the highest rated young strikers in the Premier League with an awe inspiring performance. Lukaku was unplayable showed composure, strength and determination; was a constant threat down the left flank and centrally with his direct powerful running. He finished his two goals brilliantly and was clear man of the match. Barkley showed why he is rated one of the best Home grown talents in the Premier League. The Everton defence was impenetrable with strong performances from Stones and Jagielka centrally and a fit Tim Howard between the sticks is one of the best keepers in the Premier League.

This game has all the hallmarks of being a classic encounter and small margins could swing the balance of this game. In the 2014/15 season Everton have had more attempts from Direct Free-Kicks than any other team in the Premier League. Everton tend to win many freekicks on the edge of the box due to fouls on Barkley, Mirallas and Lukaku. Man City received much less fouls on the edge of the box but do have a much higher conversion rate (ranked 3rd overall for goals scored from direct free kicks) due to free kick specialists like YaYa and Kolarov. Baines is a set piece specialist, providing many assists and a real threat from set pieces and his absence through injury will be a big loss for Everton. I was looking at the free kick and distribution of fouls and was shocked by the statistics; Manchester City were awarded the least amount of fouls of any teams last season {310 to City compared to 487 for Man Utd} and City committed 50 more fouls {472 to 389} than Everton last season. This appears odd when you consider the amount of time City spend in possession of the ball; City were ranked 1st for ‘Possession in Final Third’, ‘Total Touches’, ‘Touches in Opponents Half’, ‘Touches in Final Third’ and ‘Touches in Penalty Area’ and 2nd for ‘overall possession’ and ‘overall possession in final third’. It would have made sense to me that a team on the back-foot who are defending, without the ball who need to make tackles, clearances and interceptions would commit more fouls but City aren’t in that scenario. Therfore to conclude it must be because we maintain possession of the ball for long spells of the game and when we lose the ball we press the ball aggressively; yet that doesn’t explain why the statistics are so extreme when comparing City and United. So we must consider a team who play a similar style in another league; let’s choose Barcelona as it’s no secret that this is the team that Man City aspires to replicate both on and off the pitch! I’m starting to understand why it often feels like the referee is not watching the same game as we the fans are when the sums don’t add up! Perhaps someone could explain that to me? The only logic I can see is that Eibar play in sky blue!

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I think the 2 key areas of this game will be central midfield and battle of the flanks. Midfield will be interesting as from last season’s statistics we can see that Man City won the least amount of tackles in the league compare to Everton who won the second most tackles 692 to the 932 lost for City. Everton tend to focus on attacking down the wingss and were ranked last for % Chances Created from the Centre last season. Everton predominately focus on bringing the ball out from the goal keeper and attacking down the left flank although this threat is diminished partially by the absence of Baines with Galloway or Oviedo likely to play left back, with Galloway the more likely starter despite poll from the Liverpool echo.

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LAST 10 FIXTURES

  • 20-Dec-10 Manchester City v Everton Loss 1-2
  • 07-May-11 Everton v Manchester City Loss 2-1
  • 24-Sep-11 Manchester City v Everton WIN 2-0
  • 31-Jan-12 Everton v Manchester City Loss 1-0
  • 01-Dec-12 Manchester City v Everton DRAW 1-1
  • 16-Mar-13 Everton v Manchester City Loss 2-0
  • 05-Oct-13 Manchester City v Everton WIN 3-1
  • 03-May-14 Everton v Manchester City WIN 2-3
  • 06-Dec-14 Manchester City v Everton WIN 1-0
  • 10-Jan-15 Everton v Manchester City DRAW 1-1

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MANAGER HEAD TO HEAD

Manchester City are looking for their 3rd win at Goodison since 1992, viewing the game from a positive perspective I think that City have hexed their hoodoo after beating Everton away on the 3rd of May 2014 in the run in to becoming champions. Statistics are interesting and if City get a result this time then the record books will show 7 points out 9 in last 3 trips. Pellegrini has the edge over Martinez in the last 5 fixtures with three wins and a draw. Martinez teams tend to play attacking free flowing football and he is a likable character and well-respected manager in Premier league circles after his terms at Wigan and Swansea.

Last 5 Fixtures

  • 16-Mar-13 Everton v Manchester City Loss 2-0
  • 05-Oct-13 Manchester City v Everton WIN 3-1
  • 03-May-14 Everton v Manchester City WIN 2-3
  • 06-Dec-14 Manchester City v Everton WIN 1-0
  • 10-Jan-15 Everton v Manchester City DRAW 1-1

REFEREE

Referee Appointments: Referee Anthony Taylor
http://www.football-lineups.com/referee/341/
Has officiated City games on 3 occasions, 2 wins and 1 loss against Wigan in the cup.

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BETTING ODDS

Oddchecker

Manchester City best ever result was a 6-2 away at Goodison Park in 1928, I do fancy City to go and attack Everton and if you fancy this result you can find odds of 350-1