…going into our 4th game of this season’s, Premier League campaign. Gotta be happy with that despite only coming away from our last game with a point and with strong starts from a few of our competitors.
A bit late posting this one but first…
…a few words on the Wolves game.
Before moving on to a pre-match
blog-posting for this evening’s game, a quick look back at last Saturday’s 1-1
draw at Molineux and my ‘thoughts on’.
As I suspected I would be, I was impressed
with Wolves and I’m sticking to the idea that they shouldn’t have many issues
whatsoever surviving their first season back in the ‘top flight’. They have
good players and a manager who has them very well organised and working hard.
I thought they pressed us from the very
beginning and, despite our 71%, overall possession they continued to close us
down for the most part and stifle our passing game to a good degree. And although we hit the
woodwork 3 times, which included one fantastic save from their keeper, they had
more than a couple of chances to come out of the game with all-3 points too;
especially in the last 10-minutes where I thought we reached an, ‘anyone could
win this / next goal does’ scenario.
Having said all of that in-praise of the
home side, their goal should not have stood, let’s not forget – a goal that was
a definite handball with a chance of an off-side too. The challenge on David Silva too definitely comes under the column
of, “I’ve seen them given” and, on second
& third viewing, probably “given” more than “not” too!
The officials were quite poor on the day
overall, in my opinion, and we definitely got the worst of their failings. I
include, in fact, plenty of Wolves players who were not booked and / or took an
age and several fouls before only one of the home players received a yellow;
although I will add that both Fernandinho
& Vinny to say the least were walking on
thin ice throughout the game for silly challenges after passing errors.
It wasn’t a free-flowing performance from
City at all and I have to say that I sensed this in the first 10-minutes.
However, if we can come away from home with a point against a very good side
that were ‘well up for the fight’ and who still appeared to have their ‘tails up’ after
being promoted as champions last season then you can’t be too critical, despite
expectations rising season on season at City. Many decent sides will fair far worse at WV1 this season…
This was a game that
I went to and I had hoped to do a more-detailed write-up soon afterwards / this
week about my experience. However, more family illness issues got in the way
and before I new it…TA-DAAAAA! 5 or more days had passed! However, as this was
my first competitive away trip in a long while, I do hope to give my opinion on
how the whole day felt for me in a separate piece; perhaps drawing comparisons to the days where I
used to travel away quite a lot in the late 80s / early 90s.
v Newcastle United.
Straight
onto a predicted line-up & subs against our North East visitors…
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct
from starting line-up in the last game: Well in the days where even the very
most informed City pundits are struggling to guess what might be in Pep’s head, I think I
deserve some kind of prize for getting 10/11 correct v Wolves. No?
Fluid 4-1-3-2 / 4-4-2:
_________________________Aguero_______________
______________Jesus___________________________
__________________Fernandinho__________________
Slightly
different line-up than we’re often used to with hints of the shape that faced Huddersfield in our last home game? That’s what
I’m going for.
Ederson,
who pulled off a fine save himself in the Wolves encounter, to keep the gloves.
Although
he saved us with some typically-vintage, Vincent Kompany positioning & tackles last
Saturday, he was also most noticeably slow-of-feet, which got him / us into
trouble on a few occasions too. Therefore, I get the feeling that we’ll see John step back up to ‘the
11’ today. The rest to make up a back-4 - with attacking wing-backs - is Benjamin,
Aymeric & Kyle.
Fernandinho
to sit in front of those.
This is
where it all gets a bit fluid / interchangeable; as I’ve set it out like a
narrow 3 of David, Ilkay & Bernardo with Gabriel sitting as a deep-lying
striker but, as we saw against
Huddersfield, I think we’ll often see Bernardo wider on the right flank and
Gabriel more in a Leroy Sane role on the left in more of a fluid 4-1-4-1 /
4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (and don’t forget those attacking wing-backs often making it a
2-7-1).
Sergio has
the job of being ahead of all of that craft & creativity.
Aro continues to deputise for Ederson, Vinny likely to be back on the bench, as I've said, and joined, defesive-wise, by Nicholas. Fabian to provide both midfield & left-wing-back cover; a quite amazing reserve of attacknig tallent then follows in the form of Riyad, Leroy & Raheem, which make up 'the 7'.
Notable
absences:
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
I’d like to see Leroy
get some game time under his belt and back to his very best (will it work with Mendy bombing up & down that side?) but, yep…sure do.
Result? Although Rafa Benitez has solidified the team a little and certainly towards the back-end of last season within a still-turbulent football club, I can’t see anything other than a home win here; albeit we might struggle to break 'em down at times and for a while.
Last season’s,
corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
Expected weather conditions during
the game: A largely warm but slightly overcast day should turn into a fairly sunny & warm one for the late KO, as the sun is forecasted to pop out for a visit from around 5pm to 7pm; with temperatures a pleasant 70F and very little chance of any rain. Lovely day for a game of footy…and
some joker Geordie to get his top off in the away stand (oh how we almost took
notice).
·
With
the outgoing transfer window now shut, I’ll be getting to work soon on some
season predictions to put into a blog-posting as usual.
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