…everything I expected in terms of how tough it would be. Despite several changes that Brighton made on the night, they impressed me a lot.
And I expect today’s real test to be much harder.
v Brighton & Hove Albion
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11.
A fluid 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
_____________________Haaland(VC)_________________
__Doku_________________________________Ndiaye__
______________________Cherki____________________
__________Fernandez____________Anderson_________
Gvardiol___________________________________Nunes
___________Guehi(VC)_______________Dias(C)_________
___________________Donnarumma(VC)_______________
Subs: Rulli, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, O’Reilly, Reis, Bouaddi, Kovacic, Foden and Elias.
Gianluigi returns in goal following domestic cup action; something his manager insisted would be ‘the norm’ for league games when pressed and pressed again by reporters looking for some controversy surrounding the Italian keeper.
I see a back-4 consisting of Josko, Marc, Ruben and a returning Matheus. I think we’ve missed the 28-year-old Portuguese international.
I can envisage a ‘twin pivot’ this afternoon made up of Enzo and Elliot, with Rayan-C- ahead of the pair in a free-attacking role.
Jeremy left and Iliman right, along with Cherki, will hopefully be enough to peg our opponents back a little and reduce the number of high pressing attacks.
Erling up front should help to give The Seagulls something else to think about at their end too although, should he be marked out of the game by the third-best defensive in the division, then I would hope his supporting attackers step up and contribute with on-target shots to test their keeper.
Midweek hero, Geronimo, steps back to the bench, while defensive replacement options come in the shape of wing-backs Rayan-A-, Nico and Rico and central defender, Vitor. Midfielders and wingers in ‘the 9’ are made up of Ayyoub, Mateo, Phil and Allan.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Abdukodir Khusanov – Not selected.
- Antoine Semenyo – Out for 2 months from 17th October with a knee injury. All being well, he could be back just in time for the busy festive period of fixtures.
Do I agree with Enzo’s (predicted) line-up?
Yes.
Result?
As I’ve mentioned, our visitors made changes in midweek and were still very impressive indeed. In fact, I thought they were the better side.
However, we made a lot of changes ourselves and although I thought that they were more dominant over the ‘90+’, we matched them in terms of goals scored and, of course as it played out, we then nudged past them on pens. Well done indeed, Geronimo Rulli, and not just for the penalty shootout but for a brilliant fingertip save before that. Good keeper.
I expect another high pace, frantic, end-to-end game today and I think there’s little doubt that there’ll be goals at both ends once again; although I expect us to be a little tighter at the back than we have been of late. Conceding 16 goals in 13 games (all competitions) is just not good enough with the personnel at our disposal and when you take into consideration also that we only leaked 2 goals in our first 6 games of the season; that level of defensive collapse since is somewhat of a concern to say the least.
However, as I say, I’m reasonably confident that my predicted set-up will be a little more solid from the midfield backwards this afternoon (3:00pm KO GMT). 🤞
Result? Most things point to a draw for me so I’m going for a points shared.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Draw
I don’t appear to have done a pre-match blog posting for that game and I made no announcement as to why. Weird… 🤷♂️
Expected weather conditions during the game: No breeze, no rain and sunny intervals. This is most definitely the calm after the storm(s). 13C definitely calls for a warmish coat but this is a nice Saturday afternoon for a game of footy. 🧥☕🥧🍺⚽
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| Solidarity |
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