Reset

After 3, back-to-back domestic defeats interrupted “only” by an away victory in Europe; for the first time I can recall, I actually thought the international break came at just the right time for us.

You know what frustrated me about our defeat to Arsenal a fortnight ago, it was that our hosts looked so off-pace and almost nervous in the first half and if we’d have stepped up our tempo; we could / should have put ‘em out of sight, in my opinion. We didn’t; their tempo DID increase, they brought on some dangerous players and thanks to a cruel deflection, the rest is unwanted history for us.

We’ve had a pretty good start to our season to say the least but we need to get last season’s attacking pizzazz back and soon.

There’s a bit of a blog announcement at the end of this posting.

v Brighton & Hove Albion

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

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

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-2-4-1):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Doku______________________________________Silva

______________________________Foden___________

___________Kovacic_____________________________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Gvardiol__________________________________Walker

____________Dias_______________Stones___________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Ortega, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Phillips, Nunes, Bobb, Grealish & Alvarez.

Ederson swaps his international gloves for his domestic ones and starts in net.

A back-4, occasionally 3, of Josko, Ruben, John & Kyle.

A returning Rodders to protect those, occasionally joined by John if I’m right; Jeremy, Mateo, Phil & Bernardo ahead of the Spaniard providing the more attacking, creative work in the middle and on the wings.

Erling ‘up top’.

Stefan is our reserve keeper; Rico, Manuel & Nathan are the defenders on the side. Kalvin, Matheus, Oscar & Jack are the midfielders / wingers in ‘the 9’; Julian, having travelled far and arrived back home quite late might have to be satisfied with a place on the bench as our back-up forward / striker.

Notable absences:

-       Sergio Gomez – Not selected.

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Continues to train alone whilst being assessed by physios after each & every session. December / January hopes of a return could be closer to November / December, we were last told.

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

Yep.

Result? Top league goal-scorers who also carry the 4^th-worst defensive record in the Prem – I think it’s fair to say that our 6^th-place visitors on Saturday afternoon have had an interesting start to their season.

So, they still clearly carry an attacking threat and having both lost & drawn their last two league outings, they’ll be very keen to tighten up at the back, I’m sure.

This won’t be an easy game for us as we attempt to avoid making it FOUR domestic games on the trot without a win.

As for us, everyone, apart from Kevin of course, is fit & available. 👍 Sounding slightly negative, if we don’t set up right and we don’t regroup well after our players have been scattered all over the planet representing their various countries; then facing a side who, on their day, can ‘counter’ and rip sides apart; we could find ourselves in [more] league trouble [title chasing-wise]. Over to you, Pep.

However, I just get a feeling that we WILL reset well; perhaps with a rusty start, I don’t know for sure of course, but I think we’ll see our lads ‘click’ tomorrow.

It could be “interesting” for a time – keep your nerve Blues fans – but I think we’ll come out of this clash with a win.

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 an horrendous day in the region, along with many other areas of the UK on Friday, we’re left with a much drier day for our match. Even the sun may make a late appearance as the 90+ minutes approaches. Just a light breeze and 11C is the match temperature.

Due to a few days holiday, they’ll be no pre-match blog-posting ahead of our away game against some Young Boys. I will be arriving home in the afternoon on the match-day in question but too late to get a meaningful posting / analysis ‘out there’.

Solidarity