v West Ham United

All but one of our players are injury free; perhaps some are a little behind others in terms of match fitness.

But what’s the mood like in ‘the camp’?

v West Ham United

London Stadium

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____________________

 

 

Grealish__________________________________Mahrez

_____________________________De Bruyne_________

_____________Silva______________________________

_____________________Rodri______________________

Cancelo___________________________________Walker

 

_____________Ake______________Dias______________

 

 

____________________Ederson_____________________

Subs: Ortega, Wilson-Esbrand, Mbete, Stones, Phillips, Gundogan, Palmer, Foden, Alvarez.

Ederson in net.

The back-4 pretty much picks itself at the moment; that being Joao, Nathan, Ruben & Kyle.

Rodders still holds the deeper-lying role, although it’s likely that he’ll be in close proximity to Bernardo should the Portuguese international be deployed once again in his deeper-sweeper role. If so, Jack, Kevin & Riyad will provide the bulk of the attacking-creativity from the middle / wings.

Erling ‘up top’ to make his Premier League debut would be my guess.

Stefan to take his place on the bench for the first time in the Prem too, as back-up keeper, while Josh, Luke & John make up the defenders on the side. Kalvin, Ilkay, Cole & Phil are the midfielders waiting to come on as they sit amongst ‘the 9’; Julian is the replacement striker in reserve.

A reminder, or for those who haven’t heard, it’s five subs from nine allowed in the Premier League as from this season.

Notable absences:

-       Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.

-       Aymeric Laporte – Recovering from a knee injury / surgery. Expected return sometime in September.

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

It’d probably be more accurate, on this occasion, to say that I can understand it. A lack of full-fitness-pace / energy was notable in our Community Shield game and so I can’t imagine, therefore, our manager wanting to introduce players into the ‘starting 11’ who didn’t even travel to the USA pre-season; nor those who didn’t, or hardly, play a part in last Saturday’s game at Wembley.

If the situation had-have-been different, I’d have Silva in for Mahrez on the right-attacking flank; Foden in for Grealish and either Gundogan or Phillips in that deeper, ‘midfield sweeper’ position we’ve seen Bernardo playing the last three games.

However and as I say, I get why Pep might go with this predicted 11 and according to the BBC, Jack has three goals and two assists in six Premier League outings against The Hammers so perhaps this is one of those strange things that football sometimes throws out; in that Jack just seems to do well against ‘em.

I hope we’re in a position at some point in the game to give Josh Wilson-Esbrand a few minutes of league action, as we could end up relying on the 19-year-old quite a bit this season depending on how successful we are in the final few weeks of the summer transfer window.

Result? I’ve seen a couple of pundit predictions where not only did both have us down for a win but both also had us down for keeping a clean sheet. I’ll take that.

Personally, I think we’ll win also but I’m not so confident as they are about the ‘nil’ next to our name after the final whistle blows. West Ham already had players who can punish teams on the break in the form of Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen, to name two attacking players from last season, and now they’ve added left-winger Maxwel Cornet and 6’ 5’’ Italian striker, Gianluca Scamacca.

Now, I wasn’t gonna mention this in my pre-match blog-posting – especially the first league one of the season - but it was far too evident for me to ignore and it’s this. I hope the manager’s apparent mood that he was displaying at his pre-match press conference yesterday doesn’t migrate to his players because I can’t remember ever seeing him so sullen and, indeed, even troubled; certainly never before the opening game of the season.

The reason for his apparent broody disposition? Well, he appeared bothered by the [relatively small] size of his experienced-player squad going into the season; worried, I’m sure, about the fact that we’ve yet to sign a specialist left-wing back after non-specialist left-wing back, Oleksandr Zinchenko, departed a few weeks ago…AND quite concerned about the possible departure of Bernardo Silva; a rumour that has not only resurfaced in recent days but appears to be gathering momentum, somewhat worryingly.

I’m not going to comment on any of those at this specific moment in time (perhaps after the summer transfer window closes) nor ahead of our opening fixture tomorrow late afternoon (4:30pm BST) BUT, at I say, let’s hope the general mood in the camp is a positive one; with players right up for the battle that lies ahead of ‘em.

What I do want to add, however, is the fact that we go into our first game of the season with the club yet to name a Team Captain, which might not sound like a thing to be concerned about but I do find it a little odd.

But, as I say, everything considered, I’m still going for a City win.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Draw

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Hot. In fact, as the game kicks off, the day’s high temperature will be reaching it’s peak and that’s forecasted to be 80F (27C in new money). Very sunny too and I’m betting that the ‘on the pitch’ temperature will be even higher than that forecasted 80F. If our players’ fitness levels AREN’T yet up to full speed then the temperature could test that further and we might just see our manager take advantage of the new, five-subs-allowed rule.

Solidarity