Man City vs West Ham | PL | 20.12.25 | Predictions & Match Thread

[stubbo-admin]

I'll stick up all the usual match content a bit later, but thought I'd get the thread up:

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This weekend brings what has been in recent times arguably the most daunting match of the season 

Away at the ever fluent, ball-dominating Manchester City...a club that in previous times we had much in common with and a certain kindred spirit, but that in more modern times merely emphasise the difference that getting owners of means with a true desire for sporting success versus barrow merchants with no interest in the Club beyond buying it cheap, taking advantage of circumstance, and like house prices....doing just enough to keep it viable while watching the market trend see it's value appreciate.

We go into this game notably affected by the departure of two largely ever presents to AFCON.

AWB and Diouf are off in search of glory at the International stage. Füllkrug is unlikely to be risked with a move to AC Milan (!) seemingly on the agenda, and with January feeling as far away as ever our lightweight squad and it's meagre offerings take in one of the juggernauts of the North.

Predicted Line-up:

All eyes will be on the full-back slots, as well as if Nuno reverts to a 3 at the back.  Scarles is fit again.

Areola

Mavropanos   Kilman.  Todibo

KWP.     Magassa.  Fernandes.     Scarles

Paqueta

Bowen (c).    Summerville

Subs: Hermansen, Igor, Myers, Rodriguez, Soucek, Potts, Wilson, Earthy, Irving

Predicted Result:

Man City: 4 - 0 :West Ham

Can't see anything but a heavy defeat in this one after too much PTSD with the Sky Blues. Expect Haaland to run amok as usual.

Hope for the best. Expect the worst. But a 1-0 defeat would feel like a win.

COYI.

 

[Tomshardware]

Starting to think I'd rather see us relegated, so boring season after season with the same old predictable shit at places like Man City.

[Sir Alf]

70-80% of the problem currently is the squad. With the previous 3 managers it was more 50-60% the squad. 

Nuno does not play the football most fans would say they like if we are honest but with the squad we currently have and even with 2 - 3 quality additions ( should that unlikely event happen in Jan ) we still wont have the squad to play a fast possession style with lots of high pressing ( aka the mystical “front foot” football many demand ) imo.  Loppy and Potter tried just to get us playing higher controlled possession and we were even worse.  

Nuno needs 2 strikers and with both able to finish. He needs another physical, dominant CB that is also reasonably quick to be picked ahead of Kilman definitely and Mavro if we are honest.

I think we also need another athletic, ball carrying, hard working central midfielder to rotate with Magassa, Potts, Fernandes and Paqueta as we literally have no one to replace any of them at the 60-70 min mark as they tire. Ideally this CM is able to start a lot of games too. Its a squad game and we have no options through the spine of the team. 

Will we stay up? Without these 3 addtions we have little chance. Imho

[nychammer]

Ok so now this “inevitability” is out of the way let’s see if we’ve really got what it takes in some kinder fixtures. 3 or 4 absolute cup finals coming up and little to no room for error. If we can’t take 8-10 points from those we’re really screwed.

But honestly we are our own biggest enemy. Naive defending, wasting chances and sometimes mind boggling tactics all hand a willing opposition the initiative.

[southbankbornnbred]

Shouldn’t judge a struggling side by a game against the team likely to win the league.




 

It's two things. It's not the result that's aggravating so much, it's the wank approach and intent from minute 1 to the last, as well as a cumulative of bad results/performances. It's worrying signs of a continuation of what's been happening for the most part. 

Agree entirely, fella.

There was absolutely no ambition, of any sort, from anybody, today. Mostly, it’s been like that for 17 games so far this season. And all of last season. And the one before that.

Today was just a reflection of the shit we’ve seen since Prague. With a group of highly-paid players not good enough to stay in this division.

We’re a complete mess.

[Tomshardware]

Next 4 games were always the games that will decide whether we look like getting out the bottom 3. 

[Massive Attack]

Shouldn’t judge a struggling side by a game against the team likely to win the league.



 

It's two things. It's not the result that's aggravating so much, it's the wank approach and intent from minute 1 to the last, as well as a cumulative of bad results/performances. It's worrying signs of a continuation of what's been happening for the most part. 

[threesixty]

The players are showing absolutely zero character and belief in what they are doing.

Nuno serves up the most turgid, negative and fearful football I’ve ever seen.

 

I think a fair few of them are not even playing for Nuno or believe in him anymore. He fucks an honest Pro out the building the moment he walks through the door cutting off his nose to spite his face which never sat well with me. Ignores Wilson a lot of the time, the body language of the players generally looks off and showing a real lack of effort today. That was walking Football with no spirit from the very 1st whistle when they were all fresh as a daisy. That shit is alarming and very noticeable and real signs many of them aint playing for him anymore.  

Even Nuno himself doesn't look like he really wants to be here anymore. 

The same honest pro that 99.99% of us wanted gone? 

 

 

I think there must have been a Barney either here or at Forest where words were said privately and that’s that. Maybe JWP doesn’t want to play for him either? It’s a very unusual thing to happen. But that’s life. 

but I doubt Sullivan is happy paying out silly money for a 1st team captain level player who is never on a team sheet and isn’t injured. So this is probably a situation that cannot be resolved and the club understand. 

and to be fair, I don’t think we miss him at all and anyone thinks he would change anything for us is mental. Saw a year of his sidewise passing and no set piece goals to say he’d be a big down grade on mangassa, potts and Fernandez. 

[threesixty]

I'm still not panicking. I think we play well enough to get something out of the second half of the season. As long as we get some forwards in. I dont care about the defence, I think it's ok tbh. But we just aren't putting chances away. I'd spend it all on Ivan Toney if I could. 



 

You must be joking? We have let in 35 goals and are lucky we haven’t conceded about 10 more, due to Areola. Our defence is abysmal

Trying to see out wins in the dying minutes from winning positions has proven we will go down if it isn’t addressed.

 

 

 

I just don’t think defending our way to safety is going to work. In this league we have to score goals. I think it’s the more important and hardest thing to do. Even if we shore up our defence to amazing we still have to score because draws aren’t going to keep us up. 

so yeah, defence is good enough. We need to focus all our transfer energy on players that can finish with very few chances needed. 

I said last week, as much as I like Summerville we need him swapped out for a left winger who actually has a goal threat. After watching several videos of our attackers I’m sure most teams will say the only people we have to really worry about are Bowen and Wilson. So just put any type of pressure on Summerville and he’s not scoring. Wilson isn’t doing 90, so it’s barely 1 in 2 Bowen that anyone cares about. Thats needs to change in Jan.
Experienced pro’s only. None of this “championship see how he does in the PL stuff either”. 

Maybe get Mittovich back to PL could work. Anyone looking to show off to get into a World Cup squad. Jackson at Bayern? 

A striker and a left sided winger and we stay up. All the stats and watching us play point to that being the case. 

 

[southbankbornnbred]

Shouldn’t judge a struggling side by a game against the team likely to win the league.

But it’s Christmas now and we’re in the relegation zone - with no real sign we’ll get out of this mess.

Judging over the 17 games so far, we’re a fucking catastrophe of a team. Both under Partridge and Nuno.

Cannot stress enough what a pathetic waste of money players like Kilman, Fullkrug, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Summerville (somebody beautifully described him as “all fart and no shit”), Hermansen etc have been. It’s a shit, expensive and utterly clueless squad in need of a massive overhaul.

Despite this, we still have a chance of staying up. Because the bottom half of the league is quite poor.

But we need to win a couple of games quickly - and have a canny transfer window. 

[Mex Martillo]

 

I think a fair few of them are not even playing for Nuno or believe in him anymore. He fucks an honest Pro out the building the moment he walks through the door cutting off his nose to spite his face which never sat well with me. Ignores Wilson a lot of the time, the body language of the players generally looks off and showing a real lack of effort today. That was walking Football with no spirit from the very 1st whistle when they were all fresh as a daisy. That shit is alarming and very noticeable and real signs many of them aint playing for him anymore.  

Even Nuno himself doesn't look like he really wants to be here anymore. 

The same honest pro that 99.99% of us wanted gone? 

 

The same honest Pro that can be useful at times yes. In our position you do not fuck a player of his experience and quality on set pieces out the building long before the next window opens based on no discipline action. It's shocking management and people's alarm bells should have been ringing when that was his first move at the Club.  

Yes, I didn't want him starting, but he is a decent option to have on the bench. Having said that I think Nino is the best of the last 4 and will keep us up.

[Massive Attack]

The players are showing absolutely zero character and belief in what they are doing.

Nuno serves up the most turgid, negative and fearful football I’ve ever seen.

 

I think a fair few of them are not even playing for Nuno or believe in him anymore. He fucks an honest Pro out the building the moment he walks through the door cutting off his nose to spite his face which never sat well with me. Ignores Wilson a lot of the time, the body language of the players generally looks off and showing a real lack of effort today. That was walking Football with no spirit from the very 1st whistle when they were all fresh as a daisy. That shit is alarming and very noticeable and real signs many of them aint playing for him anymore.  

Even Nuno himself doesn't look like he really wants to be here anymore. 

The same honest pro that 99.99% of us wanted gone? 

 

 

The same honest Pro that can be useful at times yes. In our position you do not fuck a player of his experience and quality on set pieces out the building long before the next window opens based on no discipline action. It's shocking management and people's alarm bells should have been ringing when that was his first move at the Club.  

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

I'm still not panicking. I think we play well enough to get something out of the second half of the season. As long as we get some forwards in. I dont care about the defence, I think it's ok tbh. But we just aren't putting chances away. I'd spend it all on Ivan Toney if I could. 

 

You must be joking? We have let in 35 goals and are lucky we haven’t conceded about 10 more, due to Areola. Our defence is abysmal

Trying to see out wins in the dying minutes from winning positions has proven we will go down if it isn’t addressed.

[twoleftfeet]

The players are showing absolutely zero character and belief in what they are doing.

Nuno serves up the most turgid, negative and fearful football I’ve ever seen.

 

I think a fair few of them are not even playing for Nuno or believe in him anymore. He fucks an honest Pro out the building the moment he walks through the door cutting off his nose to spite his face which never sat well with me. Ignores Wilson a lot of the time, the body language of the players generally looks off and showing a real lack of effort today. That was walking Football with no spirit from the very 1st whistle when they were all fresh as a daisy. That shit is alarming and very noticeable and real signs many of them aint playing for him anymore.  

Even Nuno himself doesn't look like he really wants to be here anymore. 

The same honest pro that 99.99% of us wanted gone? 

[Mex Martillo]

Paqueta made some very good contributions. But also the usual give them the ball back nonsense. I don't think we have better, but he is part of the problem. 
We are certainly arriving at that point of hoping another team does worse than us.

[Massive Attack]

The players are showing absolutely zero character and belief in what they are doing.

Nuno serves up the most turgid, negative and fearful football I’ve ever seen.

 

 

I think a fair few of them are not even playing for Nuno or believe in him anymore. He fucks an honest Pro out the building the moment he walks through the door cutting off his nose to spite his face which never sat well with me. Ignores Wilson a lot of the time, the body language of the players generally looks off and showing a real lack of effort today. That was walking Football with no spirit from the very 1st whistle when they were all fresh as a daisy. That shit is alarming and very noticeable and real signs many of them aint playing for him anymore.  

Even Nuno himself doesn't look like he really wants to be here anymore. 

[Sweep]

Only caught the second half.

Thought we had a few decent chances until Scarles went off.  

Defending for the 3rd was absolutely pathetic.

We looked flat footed and the subs just made that worse,

Next few games are massive. New players need to be through the door before Forest/QPR games.

[threesixty]

I'm still not panicking. I think we play well enough to get something out of the second half of the season. As long as we get some forwards in. I dont care about the defence, I think it's ok tbh. But we just aren't putting chances away. I'd spend it all on Ivan Toney if I could. 
 

[Jasnik]

Summervile was not in the game today. What annoyed me the most the amount of our players were walking after losing the ball.

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

The players are showing absolutely zero character and belief in what they are doing.

Nuno serves up the most turgid, negative and fearful football I’ve ever seen.

[boleyn8420]

Well I got that wrong when I said Haaland on for a hat-trick, he only scored 2. What is the point of setting up from the start to keeping the score down. Cowardly, spineless and clueless from all concerned, again. Why would you want to keep Nuno when he sets us up to fail repeatedly. FFS

[twoleftfeet]

Could have been better.
Could have been worse.

[gpike]

10 minutes to go and he then decides to make FOUR changes all at once and we end up with 4 Defensive changes in total as well as a token disrespectful jog out for Wilson who has little time to really make a difference up top. Respect the 3-0 defeat. Pathetic. 

Sack the useless twat.  

It's the right thing to do at 3 down.. Not much that has led up to it was right though 

 

The issue I have with his approach to subs in the 2nd half is being so late and reactive today. It was clear at half time that at 2-0 we needed to take an element of risk and maybe freshen it up early in the 2nd half which could have given us some impetus for the rest of the half. Maybe I'm wrong for thinking it but I would have been proactive and sent Wilson on around the hour mark to cause them issues in their final third and then Soucek to help out in both boxes. Instead what we did was wait until Scarles was injured, then wait till the last 10 minutes after we conceded another to send a Striker on along with 3 others. It's not for me.

Agree with all of that. Don't know what the plan was that didn't involve hoping for the best. Need some key signings in Jan or else our goose is cooked 

[Helmut Shown]

Well, wasn't that fucking awful. Defence co-ordinsted by the Keystone Kops

[Sir Alf]

Massive freshen it up you are right but not when you only have options like Guido, Soucek etc. Wilson maybe but he cant run channels or play as a target man to be an outball. We can only bring on slower players. 

We should put the U21s on the bench. They can freshen things up. Earthy etc and mayers did well I thought

[Massive Attack]

Top marks to those who travelled to Manchester to endure what is shooting fish in a barrel
Safe journey home



 

Feel for them, they don't deserve to put up with travelling to witness this shit. Safe journey home indeed.