v Hull

Time constraints today lead to me struggling for time a little to complete a ‘post’ in time  for the Hull City game on Saturday – short article today folks, apologies…

"Thanks" once again BT Sport

 

Thanks to the broadcaster and one of our sponsor-partners, we were given very little preparation time between the Wigan game and the Barca match. Now, thanks to them once again, we're kicking off early [away from home once more] on Saturday; giving us even less preparation time that we could have perhaps enjoyed.

Anyhoo, we were always going to be a little fatigued, I'm sure, after our trial at Camp Nou and with key attacking players [Aguero & Jovetic] not being available, the rest are just going to have to bite the bullet on this occasion and just get on with in. Tired legs aside, they might be grateful for the early opportunity to get both the Wigan & Spanish defeats ‘out of their system’ - God knows we need to start winning Premier League games from the start of this, the new, mini season!

v Hull

 

KC Stadium

So, with not much time available, straight onto my predicted starting 11, formation and subs for our trip to The Tigers...

4-4-2:
 

_____________________Dzeko___________

 

__________Negredo____________________

 

 

 

 

Nasri_____________________________Silva

_____________________Toure___________

 

_________Fernandinho__________________

 

 

 

Clichy___Demichelis___Kompany___Zabaleta

 

 

 

__________________Hart________________

 

 

Subs: Pantilimon, Kolarov, Lescott, Garcia, Rodwell, Lopes, Navas.

 

Personally I’d prefer him to go 4-5-1 (or even 4-6-0) and really throw the 4-4-2 rulebook out of the window…but it’s not going to happen tomorrow I don’t think. Personally – and I’d LOVE to be proven wrong of course – I don’t see the Alvaro / Edin system working.

 

Hart retains his place from Wednesday; Clichy & Demichelis who got a rest in Spain should come back in. I’m sure, given the choice, he would have liked to have rested Vinny and Pablo too; especially our Captain who strained every sinew in his 'Man of the Match' performance in midweek.

But to weaken the defence with the inclusion of Demichelis is bad enough; imagine leaving Vinny out too?! As for the right-back slot, Richards now has ANOTHER niggling injury anyway and so it's 'carry on Zaba'...

 

I’m assuming he’ll go with his 4 Musketeers in the middle; I suppose he could go with the mostly rested Navas in place of either Nasri or Silva to give them some kind of a half-break.

 

And…(sigh)…it’s the ‘dynamic duo’ up front...

 

I’ve certainly not gone all anti-Negredo; I fully understand that he’s not been the same since his shoulder injury and that he misses his Argentinean partner [firing] so very badly. This is why I want our so-called engineering manager to engineer a new formula from the very start and just not try something different with ½-hour to go.

 

Result? Pfffffff…tough one. If the sounds [of determination] coming out of the likes of Pablo, Vincent and Samir [since the Barca defeat] are turned into actions throughout the whole match-day squad then it’s a welcome and valuable 3 points for the Blues! If we don’t hit full throttle and stay there for most of the game then these could well stick another spanner in our engineers’ faltering machine…

 

Aguero news: He could be out for a fortnight, possibly more.