A wounded & frightened animal?

Wounded by a late, late winner for Wolves on their ‘restart game’ at Goodison Park last Monday; perhaps afraid about teetering at the edge of the relegation zone having gained just 1 point from their last-possible 12.

If so, you know when they say about such animals…

v Everton

Etihad Stadium

Rotation / rest for some, I think; reward for others, perhaps…

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 6/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (possibly 2-7-1 at times):

____________________Haaland____________________

           

 

Grealish___________________________________Silva

 

__________Foden_______________De Bruyne_______

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Cancelo__________________________________Walker

________­___Laporte_____________Stones__________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Phillips, Gundogan, Mahrez, Palmer.

Ederson keeps his place in goal.

I’m sticking my neck out a little here by suggesting that just one defender from last Wednesday night starts this afternoon…and that’s despite excellent performances from both Nathan Ake & Rico Lewis; with another solid display also from Manuel Akanji. SO…John survives but is joined by Joao, Aymeric & Kyle. Those who find themselves dropped might be saved for / see action in our away trip to Stamford Bridge on Thursday night.

Rodders is likely to be asked to ‘go again’ as our deepest-lying midfielder and ahead of the Spaniard is a bit of bold guesswork too.

Jack had a very strange game 3 days ago – an AWFUL first half where he just ran into players; spent time on the floor before the actual fouls started flying in later on in the game and missed two crackin’ chances to score. Then, in the second half and despite extra “attention”, I’ll call it, from the Leeds players; he got better and better and actually ended up with two assists! Weird. Therefore, I’m going to suggest that our manager will be hoping that he can gain some momentum from that ‘second 45’ and ask him to start on the left once more. I think Phil needs a run-out and with Ilkay Gundogan playing 78 minutes against Girona, 88 v Liverpool and the ‘full 95’ against Leeds; a slot might be available for the 22-year-old in the middle. Kevin to be given another start but, if so, I’d expect him to be withdrawn quite early if at all possible and, lastly in that department, I think we’ll see Bernardo being given his first post-World Cup run-out on the right of our attack.

Record breaking Erling is ‘up top’.

Stefan continues to provide keeper insurance while Sergio, Rico, Manuel & Nathan are the defenders in ‘the 9’. Kalvin, Ilkay, Riyad & Cole are the midfielders / wingers on the side waiting for their chance.

Notable absences:

-       Ruben Dias – Out for an unspecified period of time with a hamstring injury sustained in his last match for Portugal.

-       Julian Alvarez – Still having ‘time out’ after reaching the final of the World Cup – could make a return for our next game, which is Chelsea away in the league on Thursday 5^th January.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Absolutely.

Result? In addition to our visitors having their collective backs against the wall, they also welcome back both central defender, Conor Coady, who was ineligible to play against his parent club on Boxing Day and long-term absentee striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin; although the latter is still unlikely to be fully up to speed / 100% match fit.

As for us, we’re in very good shape personnel-wise.

I think they’ll be a collective determination from The Toffees not to fold and come away from yet-another game with zero points and they may well offer some considerable resistance for a while. However, I honestly can’t see anything other than a City win unless we have an off day in one way or another - I actually think it’s just a case of “by how many”…

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Wet. Light rain that started around 1:00am will continue right through the morning; into the afternoon and right throughout the match a beyond. 9C doesn’t sound terribly cold for December but it’s unlikely to feel that mild’ish in the damp atmosphere. A steaming-hot pie might be a good idea for fans in attendance. As for the players, that’s gonna be a nice, ‘zippy’ pitch for some quick-passing moves.

Solidarity

 

Predictions v Leeds United

A team who had just 3 players at the World Cup, all of whom came home quite early, against a side with the most players from a Premier League club competing in Qatar; a lot of whom only returned very recently.

That could add an interesting twist to this one.

Advantage Leeds?

Well, clearly, that’s what I’m suggesting in my subheading and in addition to that, I understand while Jeremy Kyle Jesse Marsch has had his whole squad together for most of the break in domestic play; the West Yorkshire Whites even managed to arrange and play-out three friendly games in that time; keeping the whole team ‘ticking over’ and ‘fine-tuned’ ahead of their restart against us.

Away at erratic but also aggressive, highly energetic Leeds is never going to be an easy ride and facing a side who has largely spent the last 6 or so weeks resting / not travelling, training and ‘being together’ could be something of a benefit to our hosts.

v Leeds United

Elland Road

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

____________________Haaland____________________

           

 

Foden___________________________________Mahrez

 

___________Silva_______________De Bruyne_______

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Cancelo__________________________________Walker

________­___Laporte_____________Akanji___________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Ake, Stones, Robertson, Gundogan, Grealish, Palmer.

Ederson returns in net.

I think we’ll see the ‘bigger guns’ in on the flanks of our defence tonight; that being Joao & Kyle. Same pairing in-between those? It’s hard to guess a lot of the time with Pep openly admitting that he will have to rotate his central defenders due to the often-fragile nature, injury / recovery wise, of the personnel in that department. For now, at least, that fragility doesn't include summer signing Manuel and with Aymeric’s last game being a good 6 days ago; I think we’ll see the Spanish & Swiss internationals ‘pair up’ once again.

Rodders to sit in front of those, while I think we see an attacking quartet of midfielders / wingers in the form of Phil, Bernardo, Kevin and recently improved, once again, Riyad.

Erling returns to the city where he was born to lead our line.

Manuel steps back as reserve keeper; Sergio, Rico, Nathan & John are the defenders waiting to come on if needed. With most positions having cover but with no natural back-up for Rodri, I suppose there is a space for recently-included [on the bench v Liverpool] Alex; a 19-year-old central midfielder who City describe as, “All-action”. Should I be right, the Scottish born, England Under-18 lad is likely to be joined by Ilkay, Jack & Cole as midfield / wing replacement options in ‘the 9’.

Notable absences:

-       Ruben Dias – Out for an unspecified period of time with a hamstring injury sustained in his last match for Portugal.

-       Kalvin Phillips – Will be absent from the squad until further notice after returning from the World Cup too unfit to even train, we were told by his manager last Thursday night. Pep did not look at all happy about that situation when asked about the England midfielder’s absence from our last outing in midweek; further describing the 27-year-old as coming back from Qatar, “…overweight”.

-       Julian Alvarez – Still having ‘time out’ after reaching the final of the World Cup – it remains likely that he won’t be included in a match-day squad until at least our away-league clash with Chelsea on Thursday 5^th January.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Sure do.

Result? Well, I’ve said all I need to about the advantage tonight’s opponents might have over us as we continue to regroup and gather ourselves together but on the ‘flip side’, it could leave them a little rusty too. Who knows, hey?

One thing is for sure, we should definitely go into this one with the mindset that we are about to face a side who is ‘raring to go’ after their time together. In fact, we should approach the game exactly how we did the last time we visited Elland Road; where we faced a very much ‘up for it’ home side but where we played so well and kept SO sharp that we came away 0-4 winners…and that was ahead of a vital Champions League clash where we protected three key players by leaving them on the bench too.

That attitude and level of performance again, please!

Now…having said all that I have about Leeds, whatever-exactly took place over the Pennines during the domestic break appears to have put some pressure on their medical staff and physio team; with around about seven or eight players either a doubt or definitely out through either injury or illness; on top of one suspension and two long-term injuries.

As for us, some of our players managed to get a decent-enough warm up game against Spanish side, Girona, just less than a fortnight ago before even more players got a much-higher intensive workout in a deserved victory against Liverpool on 22^nd December. That last one really should have livened the senses ahead of this clash. 👍

So, as I say, if our lads go into this game with the right attitude and we’re sharp enough to control a side who, yes, concede a lot but also score aplenty (both scoring & conceding 11 in their last 4 Premier League outings), then I think this is an away win.

There’ll quite possibly be goals at both ends but I think we’ll score more. It’s a vital City win for me – “vital” now that we sit in 3^rd place; 8 points off leaders, Arsenal, but with this game in hand and with a certain team from the Borough of Trafford on our coattails, just 3 points ‘off us’ having played a game more also.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: After a bit of a wet time of it in the morning to mid-afternoon, the rain gets blown away leaving us with dry conditions for the game. 9C for a night time kick off at the back end of December in the north of England is a crazy-mild temperature too…although my advice to fans in attendance is to still ‘layer up’ to some degree. A fairly strong & persistent wind of around 20MPH will be blowing over the ground from the south / towards the Don Revie goal-end; with ‘in yer face’ gusts of around 30MPH+ for those fans at that end of the stadium.

Solidarity