David Silva insists City can claim an away win over Bayern Munich tonight by sticking to their attacking principles.
Although Roberto Mancini’s early days at City were characterised by a defensive approach that led many to conclude the Blues were incapable of being bold enough to win a major trophy, that image has now been shed.
Against Everton on Saturday, Mancini included Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure in his starting line-up, in addition to strike duo Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero, who have scored 15 goals between them this term.
When that lot drew a blank, Mancini turned to Mario Balotelli and could afford to leave Carlos Tevez on the bench.
It is a bewildering array of options, which lends itself to an attacking approach which Silva feels City should not abandon during their Champions League Group A encounter in the Allianz Arena.
“I think we can attack them like we do at home,” said the Spain playmaker.
“We can stick to our footballing principles. We don’t have to change our style against other teams home or away.
“We believe in what we are doing and have confidence in each other so we will keep doing the same things.
“The truth is Napoli played very well against us. They are a strong team.
“But against Bayern we will try the same things – to keep the ball, play with the same style and get a positive result.”
Having been followed around by one man-marker on Saturday in Jack Rodwell, it is fairly certain Bayern will pay close attention to City’s danger-man tonight.
Clearly, Mancini has other options should Silva find himself shackled in a game that could shape City’s entire group stage quest.
Although some fans were disappointed by an opening night draw against Napoli a fortnight ago, providing City avoid defeat this week, their debut in the competition will have got off to a solid start.
Defeat would give them a problem though, especially if there was a positive result in Napoli’s encounter with Villarreal.
It is not quite what was expected at the start of the competition, when City were tipped by some as potential semi-finalists or even better.
Not that Silva is being drawn into such talk.
“First we have to focus on Bayern Munich,” he said.
“We need to go little by little, try to get a good result and then improve step-by-step and see how far we can go.”
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