Manchester City Forums

As City continue to step up their fitness ahead of next week's first qualifying round for the UEFA Cup, they played a swiftly arranged friendly against Ukrainian team FC Metalurh Zaporizhya last night, who have been in training just over on the Austrian side of the border.

And it proved a useful run out for Mark Hughes’ men against fitter opposition as the Manager continues to assess the squad he first took charge of just over a week ago.

The game itself ended 0-0 with the best chance of the match coming after just two minutes as Darius Vassell got up well at the back post to head Michael Ball’s cross against the post.

From then on chances were at a premium as Mark Hughes made 10 changes during the match, one of which was to give exciting winger Vladimir Weiss a first taster of action with the senior squad.

The Manager will have also been pleased to see Micah Richards and Nedum Onuoha come through their first game back from long term injury as the pair played for 77 minutes.


After the game fellow defender Michael Ball told mcfc.co.uk: “You could see in the first five minutes that they were quite sharp and that was a very good test for us.

“It’s good that we’ve had a chance early in the pre-season to get a competitive match under our belts as we prepare for the UEFA Cup tie in the Faroe Islands next week.”

City's team for the game was:

Hart(Schmeichel 46), Onuoha (Mee 77), Richards (Williamson 77), Dunne (Garrido 55), Ball (Logan 55), Petrov (Weiss 65), Johnson, Hamann (Ireland 46), Vassell (M.Mills 77), Bianchi (Castillo 65), Corradi (Evans 46).

It seems the formation that we played in was 4-4-2 and this is the most likely formation that we will see ourselves play in under the new boss Hughes.

There are some good news, they are some players that had the chance to play. Mee, Williamson, Logan, Weiss, Matthew Mills, and Evans.

from the changes it seems that we played 4-5-1 in the 2nd half, I'm so happy that Hughes gave the new faces some playing time. Especially Weiss, and Evans.

It's interesting that Bianchi and Corradi started as strikers.

Johnson played the entire game

vass bianchi and corradi - no wonder the game ended 0-0

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

No boji...is that because of his thigh problem?

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When i get sad, i stop being sad and be awesome instead.....true story.

notable abscences.....
Benjani, elano, caecido, fernandes.....

I dont think we can take anything from the line up

Bianchi & Corradi (cant see corradi with us at the start of the season)

However you can probably make assumptions that we will (at last) be returning to a 4-4-2 formation which is good.

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[SIZE="3"][color="Black"][font="Century Gothic"]مدينة [تيل] يموت أنا[/font][/color][/SIZE]

No quick fix for the banjo/barn problem.

Lots of time though, but we'll be needing goals in a week.

No Corluka either. Musta give him more time off after euro's. Which will be why Fernandes isn't there either. But why wouldn't Benjani, elano and caecido have been there?

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So, Sam Williamson's still at the club eh? Interesting......

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I raped myself once. My mind was telling me no but my body, my body was telling me yes.

I have no idea, probably some rest or injuries.

Not a bad idea if we can keep him.

Hold on, hold on, hold on, take a closer look fuck-zips;


Hart(Schmeichel 46), Onuoha (Mee 77), Richards (Williamson 77), Dunne (Garrido 55), Ball (Logan 55), Petrov (Weiss 65), Johnson, Hamann (Ireland 46), Vassell (M.Mills 77), Bianchi (Castillo 65), Corradi (Evans 46).

That seems a very decent appraisal of the youth and new faces, and foookin well on him? A nothing match, see what we have in house, check out the stock and don't risk our highest quality. 10/10 for tactical approach from me. Who gives a shite if it finished 0-0, that wasn't the point.

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KYPU

Ched's a prospect for this season. What a brute.

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I raped myself once. My mind was telling me no but my body, my body was telling me yes.

I thought we would get rid of Corradi easily as free agent, but he still has one year in contract

We must have put him on a wage that other teams don't wanna match for a player of his age. Even if they do get him for free.

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There is some good news that says he might go to Reggina, let's hope we will get rid of him soon.

Why the hell haven't we got rid of vassel yet.. what a bag of shite.

bit harsh?

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*Fingers crossed*

Do you use that expression where you are, "fingers crossed"? If not, do you still know what it means though?

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