Our last game before
the second of THREE international breaks
before the turn of the year, for flip’s sake…🙄
A quick, non-footballing comment regarding last Tuesday’s game before I
continue. Didn’t our lads look dead smart in our all-maroon kit? Far, FAR better than that
dirty-lookin’, f’in Noel Gallagher “inspired” effort, hey?
v Fulham
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:
____________________Haaland____________________
Grealish_________________________________Savinho
_______________________________Foden___________
____________Silva_______________________________
_____________________Stones____________________
Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis
____________Dias_______________Akanji___________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Ortega, Walker, Wright, Kovacic, McAtee, Gundogan, Nunes, O’Reilly and Doku.
After a surprise [for
me at least] to see Ederson dropped for a Champions League fixture in midweek – nothing whatsoever against Stefan, I’m
just sayin’ – I would imagine that the Brazilian ‘gets the nod’ to start
this league match.
I’m going for a
back-4, occasional 3, of Josko, Ruben, Manuel and Rico.
To Stones or to Kovacic? That is the question. It might not be
either.
At home, it would
be another good opportunity to give Mateo another go at claiming the ‘Rodri
position’…at least until January; a month where we keep being linked with a
variety of defensive midfielders in the transfer market. However, despite him
playing the whole 90+ minutes last Tuesday, I’ve just got a slight feeling
that our manager might want to keep John’s momentum going ahead of the imminent
international break; giving him a go in that position this weekend.
Ahead of the
England international I’m going for Jack, Bernardo, Phil and Savinho to start.
Erling is the
furthest forward of ‘em all.
Stefan returns to
the bench as reserve stopper; Kyle would be the only defender on the side in my
predicted matchday squad. Jacob, Mateo, James, Ilkay, who I COMPLETELY
omitted from my last blog posting in error 😬, Matheus and Nico make up SIX midfielders
on the bench; while Jeremy is the only natural wide man sat alongside them.
Then again, in our last league outing
Pep chose to field just 8 instead of a
full-9 on the bench and two of those were goalkeepers with no youth players in
sight… 🤷♂️
Notable absences:
-
Nathan
Ake – Bit of an update on the last few weeks:
Our manager said, yesterday, that he still expects Nathan to return just after
the international break but that it will take time [or him to be fully ready to
take part in games]. It sounds like Nathan will be back amongst his teammates
on the training pitch after the domestic break but it could be a couple of
weeks following that where we see him in contention for a place on the pitch.
However, Pep was also of the understanding that Nathan had already started to
train on grass alone, so progress is being made just ahead of the
internationals. 👍
-
Rodri
– Injured Anterior Cruciate Ligament and will be
missing for the remainder of the season.
-
Kevin
De Bruyne – Injured with a groin / pelvic / hip
issue and could return just after this break in domestic football. Guardiola
went further to say that Kevin now has to really manage his body following major
hamstring surgery last season and that two games in three days is definitely no
longer possible for the 33-year-old.
-
Oscar
Bobb – Out injured with a fractured leg that he
received in training. Expected return is anywhere between mid-November
and mid-December, going off the initial assessment / information released at
the time.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
So, our last game before another annoying set of
internationals and we need to end our opening seven-league-game-salvo on a high,
for sure, in order to keep with the lead runners.
On Saturday, we face a side who, after their narrow, 1-0
opening-day defeat have since remained unbeaten in the league with 3 wins and 2
draws. Our visitors, therefore, need to be taken most seriously indeed and they
sit just 3 points behind us in 6th place.
Apart from banging in 3 goals at home to Newcastle United, they
don’t appear to be big goal scorers; with 8 from 6 league games in total.
However, with just 5 conceded in those same matches it does suggest a tight,
organised side.
Yes Blues fans, it’s likely to be
another one where we’ll have to get past two thick-defensive walls before we
get sight of their goal…
As for us, forgetting last Tuesday night’s training match
in Slovakia (yes, that did sound rather arrogant but
that’s how that game largely played out), I find myself looking at September’s
results and while on the one hand I applaud the fact that we were undefeated in
five games in all competitions; I find myself squinting and frowning just a
little whilst scrutinising them in more detail.
-
Brentford: Hit
us hard and fast and took the lead in an opening 15 minutes where they could
easily have had another couple. Credit to them but why we started so cold and
didn’t appear to learn from past lessons against The Bees only Pep and the
players themselves will know. Thankfully, we took a grip of the game and got
there in the end with a 2-1 win.
-
Inter Milan: The
Italian side came to defend very professionally and then tried to hit us with
moments of magic. They succeeded in keeping a clean sheet but failed to score
against us. A rare clean sheet for us 👍
and European points shared.
-
Arsenal: Another
‘park the bus’ performance from The Gunners at our place but despite that, they
still breached us twice; albeit with one goal being surrounded in controversy.
Another game where we couldn’t keep a clean sheet, and at home too, but points
shared nonetheless.
-
Waford: Some
personnel changes but still a strong 11 put out by Pep, we managed to seal the
win. However, once again we let in a goal and a better finish from our visitors
right at the end could have seen ‘the 90’ end 2-2! 🙄
-
Newcastle
United: A really patchy performance form us – good in parts, really sloppy and
slow in others with some individual performances best forgotten. Again, there
was some controversy with our opponent’s goal but, once again, we couldn’t keep
a clean sheet and ANOTHER points shared.
We certainly do
like sharing, don’t we? And we sure are far too generous when it comes to letting
the opposition score… 😖
As I say, it’s well
done to us for a month of zero defeats but 3 draws and 2 narrow, 2-1 wins is
hardly excellent form, do you agree? I know we have a bit of a reputation for
starting campaigns a little slowly before building really good momentum further
down the line but I’d like to see us deliver an improved performance and a
clean sheet this afternoon.
I’m sort of looking
at this game as being somewhat of a ‘springboard match’…it’s just a shame we’re
jumping off that springboard into another international break.
Still, all things
considered, I’m going for a City win…with a possible clean sheet thrown
in for good measure.
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 one of the wettest days in
a fair number of years in the region on Monday, which was then followed by a
still-damp Tuesday; dry, sunny weather has broken out and it’s set to continue today.
Hurray! 15C, which is almost 60F in old
money, with a good amount of the yellow round thing in the sky too. Even the 11MPH
breeze is a southerly one and should simply add to the overall pleasant feeling
on an early October afternoon. 🌤😎⚽🍺🥧
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