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
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