Blue chews-daze
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Saturday, 9 March 2019
Injuries diminish a little ahead of Watford
Following a rare week off, ahead of 2 cup games in the week to come and before a full-2-weeks off - for players not selected for their countries at least - news came out of Pep’s pre-match press conference yesterday that Benjamin Mendy is training and might play a part in this evening’s game and that Fabian Delph & Aymeric Laporte have made enough ground in their recoveries to be in contention also.
The latter is the big one there for me…
v Watford
As I’m posting this on the day and in order
to get it out ASAP, straight to a pre-match write-up; a match that we go into
sitting a point clear at the top after being 8 points behind a few weeks ago – what
a turn-around!
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct
from starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).
Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero____________________
___________________Gundogan___________________
____________________Ederson____________________
With a
little bit of softly-softly bringing back recently-injured players and a soon-to-arrive
Champions League fixture as early as 72
hours after this game ends, I think this is how our manager will set us up
today:
Ederson
in net.
A back-4
of Oleksandr, Nicholas, Vincent and I think we’ll see Danilo on the right-side
of defence as Guardiola keeps Kyle even fresher for Tuesday.
Ilkay
gets ‘the Fernandinho job’ and sits the
deeper of the midfielders; David & Bernardo ahead of him in the middle with
Leroy & Raheem the likely flankers.
Sergio ‘up
top’.
Aro is
the back-up stopper with the afore-mentioned Kyle, Aymeric & Fabian making
up defensive-replacement options (with Fabian also providing defensive midfield
cover if required also). Phil, Riyad & Gabriel provide more craft and ‘forward
thinking’ from the 7 on the side.
Notable
absences:
-
Benjamin Mendy – Perhaps a little too soon for this one; we might see him on
the bench in midweek.
-
John Stones
– Just not quite recovered enough to
be ready for this fixture; Tuesday might be a little too soon also.
-
Fernandinho – Injured and could be for several weeks more.
-
Kevin De Bruyne – Apparently has made some
progress but, similar to Fernandinho, could be some time yet.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
It’s a good’n –
probably one of the strongest teams we can put out, all things considered.
Result?
I like Watford - they have decent players, are well organised, play with a
high-level of determination; all of which has resulted in-them-putting plenty
of teams ‘to the sword’ both home and away.
Their efforts also see our visitors currently
sitting on the same points as 7th-place Wolves with only
a “2” goal difference separating both side and with a 4-point-cushion over West Ham
in 9th. They're in the quarter finals of the F.A. Cup.
However, although they are the highest
scorers outside the top-6 and over 13 other sides they’ve also conceded just as many as they’ve netted
(41) and were on the receiving end of a 5-0 walloping against Liverpool
the league-game-before-last and, so, appear
quite vulnerable too.
Unless they’ve learnt how to tighten up considerably at
the back before arriving in Manchester – and
although they clearly have goals in them – I think this will be a home win;
one that Pep and the lads know just how important it is as we can go 4 points clear at the top for a
few hours at least (c’mon Burnley tomorrow!).
Last season’s,
corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Win
Sunday, 3 March 2019
Player improvements & declines.
Throughout the season there’s been a natural, ongoing conversation amongst City fans – as there would have been with fans of all sporting teams – about which player has improved and which of those have taken a step backwards from last season.
In fact, I’ve found those conversations increasing in recent weeks; particularly surrounding certain players and possibly because we’ve gone through an intense period of fixtures from the build-up to - and over - Christmas to yesterday’s game (we actually have a week off this week!).
So, it got me thinking…
Whilst having a rare, quiet’ish Sunday today
- and having watched yesterday’s game and enjoyed our performance very much
indeed - I just thought I’d have a look at my personal, end-of-season player
ratings from last season and, compared to what I think most of us would agree
on this season so far; it makes for interesting comparisons, I think.
First
of all, last season’s article.
Had a read / flick-through?
Okay, so what is that suggesting?
Ederson
– 'Same as' really.
He’s "Mr Steady-Eddy" almost all of the time and I
think City fans still love him and perhaps more-so. Alert, brave and dynamite with his feet, which
is all that I I noted at the end of last season!
Danilo
– Again, pretty much ‘same as’.
Mr 7/10 is about right this time round too and
it’s useful to have him around to provide cover / relief on both flanks in a
season where we’re still pushing on 3 out of 4 fronts (having put one in the bag already).
Vincent
Kompany – I don’t think we’re quite seeing him as an 8/10’er (I have him down
as a scoring a 7 on average at the moment) but the comparisons of-him coming
back into games in the final quarter of the season are remarkable.
Aymeric
Laporte – Missive improvement!
Shame he suffered injury recently because
this guy has now ‘slipped into the Premier League grove’.
Benjamin
Mendy – Carbon copy report!
Injured…again…but perhaps sits on a
slightly higher mark than last season (from me) whenever he did play at the
beginning of the season.
Nicholas
Otamendi – Not quite as good.
Still a solid player to have available and
does little wrong. But I’ve both noted – and scored so far – that he’s not been
quite as consistently good nor the stalwart I had him down as last season.
John
Stone – Jury still out, I would suggest.
Still injury prone, still gets around a 7
(7.5 at the mo - some very good early season performances had him higher back then) from me this season so far. Another
carbon copy report so far…
Kyle
Walker – Big decline!
And, interestingly, my end-of-season posting
noted a decline in the last few games of LAST season, which is something I had
completely forgotten about. Pressure of the England campaign that was, then,
coming up? Injury niggles? Mmmmmm…
Kevin
De Bruyne – Way below-par for our superstar midfielder.
Injuries have plagues him though and, like
Kyle, is possibly suffering World Cup Blues. I suppose when you get a rating
(from me) as 9.5 * there’s always a chance you’ll
see a season of decline but, through no fault of his own, he's dropped a couple
of point-notches so far. I’m convinced
that even when he’s been deemed fit to play he’s been carrying something and
that appeared to surface again yesterday when he went down and was withdrawn…
Fabian
Delph – "Mr Where Are You" is ‘down 2’ also.
Similarly, seems unfair to mark as he’s
hardly kicked a ball but he too has not been the player / saviour he was last
season.
Brahim
Diaz – N/A.
Fernandinho
– Exactly ‘same as’ from me at the moment!
Come back soon fella!
Phil
Foden – A few more appearances and slight improvement.
Ilkay
Gundogan – Same as Phil!
Exactly the same as he sees more game time
and goes up in my ratings, which will be published after the season.
Leroy
Sane – Bit of an erratic season.
Some games outstanding, some games he's looked
lost for ideas. Overall, he’s gone down a notch-mark at the moment. Still love the talent-packed lad though…
Bernardo
Silva – Improved some MORE!
Had a little icky patch after weeks of very,
very fine performances but has bounced back again in fine style in recent weeks! He's
moved up slightly from a very good rating last season. I hope that is maintained, at
the very least, in the next couple of months!
David
Silva – Awesome…but fading a little.
He was not only tremendous last season but
started just-so this campaign-round too! But, then, has slid somewhat in recent
months; possibly due to having to play more than his legs would like in order to cover other absences? Perhaps.
Down on last season but has improved again in the last couple of games and will
always be a City hero forever, of course.
Raheem
Sterling – “…is top once again”!
‘Same as’, actually - some superb performances
intermingled with a few duffers sees him on course to receive the same, high
mark from me as last season.
Yaya
Toure – N/A…although
if I was to rate his studio work in his first (as far as I’m aware, at least) appearance
a few weeks ago on one of the sport-channels that was showing one of our live games, then he’d
get 1/10 (for appearing at least and for his first effort). Did anyone see it? Could anyone understand him?
Oleksandr
Zinchenko – Improved some more.
Actually, I didn’t realise I’d given him a
very good mark of 7.5/10 last season. He’s currently sitting on a 7.5 * from me this season and if he carries on the way he’s
been playing in the last few games then he’ll push on even higher than that!
Sergio
Aguero – Almost the same.
Currently sitting on 0.5 less (from me) than-he-ended-up-with last season. Some AMAZING games mixed with a few
'off ones' and 8/10 so far for our striking hero is still a crackin’ score; especially
for a player who, yes, has a lot of
creativity around him but who-also often has to put in a 'hell of a shift' in a system
that nearly-always sees him as ‘the 1’ in our various, fluid formations.
Gabriel
Jesus – Just off.
Almost on the same mark as last season.
Took a while for him to get traction when-given his chance but then he did so big
time! Since then, he’s back to being our second striker and has-had a niggly-injury since.
I don’t rate the manager, as I do the-players on a
running, game-by-game basis but, what I will say at this stage, is that Pep has
got one trophy 'in the bag' (and retained a trophy for our club the first time in our
history) and appears to understand the Premier League much better; despite that
‘wobbly period’ that nearly span our season 'off its axis'.
He’s doing very, very well again.
What do you think? Agree on the whole or not? Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read!
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