League, cup, league, cup…

…is the marching sound of these strange times at the moment; as alternate competitions early on in the season continue to fly at us at a fair ol’ rate of knots.

With changes in ‘the 11’ inevitable, it’s not exactly a game to get that last, disastrous result ‘out of our system’. But a victory over a Premier League side and progression to the 5^th round of the League Cup might just act as a small dose of tonic before we march on back into league action away at Leeds United on Saturday.

v Burnley

Turf Moor

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

_____________________Delap_____________________

 

 

___Foden______________________________Torres___

 

_____________Doyle__________Palmer_____________

 

__________________Fernandinho__________________

Zinchenko_________________________________Garcia

 

____________Laporte_________Harwood-Bellis______

 

 

_____________________Steffen____________________

Subs: Carson, Mendy, Ake, Rodri, De Bruyne, Sterling, Mahrez.

It seems like ‘pass the parcel’ at the moment - Zack gets handed back the gloves for this one.

Having been given an early, unexpected place on the bench last Sunday; Oleksandr should return from muscular injury to make his first season start at left-wing. SURELY Pep has to give Kyle Walker a rest now before our weekend league fixture and if so, I can only think that Eric will be asked to both ‘go again’ and cover in that position, as Guardiola doesn’t appear to be dipping into the EDS for right-wing backs in such circumstances. I don’t think there’s much doubt that Taylor will get another start in this competition in the middle of the defence and I suspect that we might see Aymeric get his first start of the season, following Covid-19 isolation, to partner the 18-year old Stockport lad.

Having been withdrawn as early as 51 minutes last Sunday, I’m going for Fernandinho to ‘get the nod’ as our one & only defensive midfielder.

Ahead of the Brazilian, a couple of lads whose combined age is just 36 – Tommy and possibly making his first-team debut, is Wythenshawe born Cole. Phil could well be asked to start another game, which is likely to be a role that sees him coming in from the left wing with, surely, Ferran starting on the attacking right.

Liam to be the recipient of some considerable creativity from the midfield / wing departments.

Scott gets his second ‘bench spot’ in a week; Benjamin & Nathan make up the only defensive change-option from the side. Rodders, Kevin, Raheem & Riyad are the midfield & wing choices from ‘the 7’.

Notable absences:

-       Ederson – Not selected / rested.

-       Joao Cancelo – Out until about mid-October with a foot injury.

-       Kyle Walker – Not selected / rested / protected.

-       John Stones – I’m just not sure. The last time I heard he was deemed as not fit enough to be in the [last] match-day squad. Does that mean that he wasn’t really fit enough when he faced Wolves the other week? I don’t get it…

-       Bernardo Silva – Out until about mid-October with a quadriceps strain.

-       Ilkay Gundogan – In Covid-19 isolation up to and including 30.09.2020, so this should be the last game he’ll be missing for, in relation to the Coronavirus at least. However, as was the case with Laporte, Ilkay may-then-have-to take time to get his fitness levels up, so he may-not-necessarily be available for Saturday’s game.

-       Gabriel Jesus – Out until at least mid-October with a muscular injury.

-       Sergio Aguero – Training alone / recovering slowly from knee surgery. Expected to return around early-to-mid November.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Well, it’s not ideal in some ways but I’d have to say, yes.

Foden is most-definitely more effective when-playing more centrally, in my opinion, and although Garcia has covered at right-wing back before; don’t be expecting lung-busting runs up & down the wing, Kyle style, to support the attacking play & defend in equal measures.

As for the other flank, we can only hope that Oleksandr is fit enough to play at least 60 minutes in his first game back, should he start of course.

I think it’s definitely right to give Tommy Doyle & Ferran Torres staring places in this fixture and to give Cole Palmer his debut too.

Result? It’s really hard to call this one.

If Sean Dyche decides to put out a strong side containing mostly ‘first 11s’, then I can see us struggling a little with that young and, in some ways, adaptive team.

If our hosting manager deploys a ‘mixed bag’ or even a very-much-weakened side and our guys put on a good display – particularly from Ferran, Phil & Liam - then I can see us winning this encounter in normal time.

So...I’m ‘fence sitting’. I’m going for a draw after 90 minutes and, therefore, it’s anyone’s penalty shoot-out to win which, of course, I’m just not gonna attempt to predict.

Another League Cup game I’m not going to be able to watch for more reasons than one… ☹

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Wet, breezy & chilly. Light rain continues during the match; following all-day rain that’s gonna leave a soggy pitch for sure. 12C is the late September temperature for this fixture.

Sifting through the mess…

I rarely do a post-match posting but whether it’s for personal therapy or not, how can I possibly not make comment after something like that – our heaviest home defeat in 17 years?!

Where to begin…

May-as-well, at least, start with some player analysis and, therefore, start at the back.

Ederson:

Can’t fault him for anything. In fact, if memory serves, he was very close to most of the balls that flew past him – he just didn’t quite have the reach.

Benjamin Mendy:

Bloody awful again! I think I recall him-making one, neat slide pass [to Foden I think it was] but other than that, his decision-making is non-existent; his injuries have caused his most-potent weapon, his pace, to be reduce by at least 25% and other than that, he’s a ‘one-trick pony’ in terms of getting the ball to the by-line and then ‘power-slapping’ it towards the opposition box; in a ‘hit & hope’ fashion. No surprise to me whatsoever that he bundled over a Leicester player to give away 1 of 3 penalties – he’s little more than a clumsy oaf who just can’t defend…and he’s supposed to be a wing-back! The Manchester Evening News gave him 3/10…

Nathan Ake:

He must surely be thinking, following his move from relegated Bournemouth, Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Did nothing wrong, from what I can recall, and got his debut goal to make it 2-4. I think, though, that once Ruben Dias arrives and settles in AND we get Laporte up back up to speed; if we DON’T also sign a new left-wing back before the “summer” transfer window shuts; then I’d like to see him at least shuffle over to that position. I know he’s not the kind of left-back that ‘gets up & down the pitch’ but at least he can flippin’ defend a bit.

Eric Garcia:

The irony! The only defender who has expressed a desire to leave the club and, just like he did against Lyon, had a stand-out performance at the back. I don’t even blame him for giving away 1 of 3 penalties; where as 2 were down-right naïve by his colleagues, his was simply a case of being done by a clever-thinking Vardy. That one was, for me though, a soft penalty and I was venting my disapproval at the TV as soon as the England forward went down.

Kyle Walker:

Again, apart from a case of ‘should have known better’ – and what I mean was just let the flippin’ attacking player go in those circumstances, as the Leicester player still had Ederson to beat from a narrowing angle and we had another defender bombing in also – he probably just about edged out Garcia as-being our best “defender”. And when HE got forward, it looked more promising; in that something would come of it in the opposition’s box. Apart from giving the penalty away, I can’t really fault him.

This is where I think it gets a little yuckier though…

Rodri & Fernandinho:

I’ve put ‘em together because…I actually don’t think either of them had a particularly BAD game and if I was to separate them, I’d say Fernandinho had the slightly better of the two. But, for me, what appeared to work so very well at Wolves last Monday - creating an extra defensive shield and allowing other players to ‘run riot’ - not only just didn’t work yesterday but I think it was largely our undoing. There was no ‘attacking thrust’ or urgency through the middle. Instead, after our opening goal it was all fairly slow, side-passing, which largely allowed the opposition to just ‘sit & watch’ our metronome passing before bursting out and causing damage to us. I don’t know if you saw the post-match talk on Sky Sports but Micah Richards was particularly scathing of Rodri; basically, saying that all he was contributing was slow & short side passes. Pretty much what I’ve just said really – metronome.

Phil Foden:

I don’t know whether, as my eyes slowly deteriorate with age, I need to consider getting a larger television but I was struggle for a long, long time to see him on the pitch. He was, of course, operating in a left-hand-side-attack role but Leicester’s 5-man defence simply smothered the young lad. Nothing more to say really – he was completely ineffective out there yesterday and was duly substituted.

Kevin De Bruyne:

What a surprise – our best player on the pitch! Even then, though, for all his hard work once again, where he was popping up all over the place probing the Foxes’ defence; he was getting little joy and that same, local news outlet could “only” manage to give him a 7.

Riyad Mahrez:

…and I say his name in my head with a sigh. Regular readers will know my firm opinions of the Algerian winger – he’s either practically unplayable when he’s ‘on it’ and because he’s got skill & tricks aplenty…but then he has games where he looks like he’s never had a ball at his feet before; where nothing seems to come off for him and before he vanishes completely out of the game. Yesterday’s performance was a PERFECT example of that – a WONDERFUL strike on / around 4-minutes but then…nothing. I swear that for a good while after his goal he was walking around with an expression on his face that said, Look at me, look at me! I’ve scored a great goal against the team a I used to play for! After a while, though, that facial expression turned to a heavy frown; as nothing he touched came off. A perfect Mahrez display in so many ways!

Raheem Sterling:

Quiet game, snuffed out. Sometimes I’ve seen him have decent games when asked to cover in a central striker role…but not often. This one certainly didn’t work but I can’t bring myself to blame him in this one.

I’m a bit reluctant to go beyond the ‘starting 11’ but I will say a little bit…

I thought seeing the imposing figure of Liam Delap come on the was a refreshing sight and he got a header in quite excellently, which skimmed the top of the crossbar not long after coming on. Other than that, though, just like they did with the rest of our players; he was largely snuffed out by Leicester.

And as for Ferran Torres, I just don’t think that the situation has been right in both Premier League matches for him to come on and shine…and, so I’m led to believe, he was asked to play an unfamiliar narrow role in our cup win over Bournemouth? Either way, he’ll have better opportunities to show us & all what he can do. Personally, though, I’d like to see him on his preferred right with Sterling on the left wing whenever we get all our personnel back…

Pep:

Peed me off a bit, I have to be honest.

Now, I’m not sure if you’ll believe me but Mr Guardiola gets paid FAR more than I do. No? Okay.

But I’m sat on my settee with my senses slightly effected by a few beers while Pep, presumably sober, had a far closer view than I had; and I could see, quite clearly, that despite largely controlling the ball with huge amounts of possession in the first half, Leicester’s probing, break-away attacks were getting more and more dangerous as time ‘ticked on’. And, just as Micah was saying afterwards, that plodding, side-passing was doing nothing to either threaten the visitors nor supress those increasing bursts of threat. WHY, then, did Pep do nothing to change it?!

Foden was doing nothing out on the left so bring him inside, I was screaming in my head, to inject some dynamic pace in the middle to help Rodders & Fern; put Raheem in his preferred left-side role and give the overloaded Leicester defence no-one specific to focus on. I reckon that if we’d have done that before they scored their equaliser, we’d have got around / behind them more with Phil & Kevin then-running onto balls from deep. It might not have worked but, before we made any subs, something like that would have been worth a flippin’ try at least!

It sometimes baffles me that for such a great manager – and he is – when it’s not going to plan, he looks so deep in thought, at times, that I swear he’s already thinking how he can fix it for the next game rather than sorting it there & then. I know that sounds mad, but…

We’ll get better…won’t we?

We won’t see too many 2-5s again this season and we were missing key players who can - and would have - made a difference, I'm sure. But you won’t find too many non-City fans feeling sorry for us with our injury plight and I don’t think we should either, with the vast amounts of money we’ve spent.

This Ruben fella looks decent and with him coming in, Aymeric returning very soon and likely to partner the Frenchman, then-perhaps Nathan ‘shuffling over’ and with Joao Cancelo not THAT far off a return himself; things will settle down at the back. But I still hope & pray that we sign a flippin’-good left-wing back before the current window slams shut.

However, Pep has got to find that devastating pace again that we’ve seen so many times – that quick-passing, dynamic blitz that’s left us open-mouthed in awe.

I know the current situation isn’t ideal and that it hasn’t exactly been the best pre-season preparation time but, of course, that goes for the all the other sides too.

And I acknowledge also that there have been some CRAZY scores in the league so far already, which includes yesterday’s disaster-day at the office for us.

But if we’re not careful, we’re gonna see another league campaign, at least, slip from our grasp. The pattern from last season is already starting to show itself once again (in all comps) – W W L…

Goal fest?

I’ve just got a feeling this is gonna be a crackin’ game with both keepers seeing quite a bit of action.

v Leicester City

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).

Fluid 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-6-0:

______________________________________________

 

____________________Sterling___________________

 

___Foden_____________________________Torres___

___________________De Bruyne__________________

______________Rodri___________________________

_________________________Fernandinho__________

Mendy___________________________________Walker

 

______________Ake­___________Stones____________

 

 

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Steffen, Garcia, Laporte, Doyle, Nmecha, Mahrez, Delap.

Ederson reclaims the gloves following midweek domestic cup action.

Having played most of and ALL of Thursday night’s game respectively; Benjamin & Kyle are likely to be asked to ‘go again’. I know that we potentially have returning [from injury] players in October but this is a situation that really does need sorting out in my opinion; especially on the left-hand side. Anyhoo...in-between those, I’m going for Nathan & John to resume their partnership from last Monday.

Although it means asking Rodders to ‘go again’ (he was withdrawn on 61 minutes 3 days ago), I’ve got a feeling that our manager will deploy the same ‘central-midfield 2’, with rested Fernandinho partnering the Spanish defensive midfielder.

Take it either way, but we then have a fluid quartet – or ‘a 3’ behind a more-advanced ‘false number 9’ – of creative / attacking players that should put the fear in any defence. Causing the Foxes all sort of problems this afternoon is likely to be Phil, Kevin & Ferran, with Raheem in a slightly more advanced / central role.

Zack slips back onto the bench; Eric likewise as defensive cover and I think we might also see Aymeric being given a place on the side; as he moves closer towards match-fitness (I could well be wrong there – his boss might be looking at our midweek cup match to bring the French centre-back in slowly and we could see Taylor Harwood-Bellis ‘in there’ instead). Tommy, Felix, Riyad & Liam are the likely names making up the more creative / threatening midfield / wing / striking replacement-choices from ‘the 7’.

Notable absences:

-       Joao Cancelo – Out until about mid-October with a foot injury.

-       Oleksandr Zinchenko – Out until about mid-October with a muscular injury.

-       Bernardo Silva – Out until about mid-October with a quadriceps strain.

-       Ilkay Gundogan – In Covid-19 isolation up to and including 30.09.2020.

-       Gabriel Jesus – Out until at least mid-October with a muscular injury.

-       Sergio Aguero – Training alone / recovering slowly from knee surgery. Expected to return around early-to-mid November.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

For regular readers, I am somewhat boring myself explaining the same defensive concerns that I have about both Mendy & Stones either side of new-signing Ake, who is still getting used to us. And I get the feeling that our visitors might just exploit that today. I think it might be a case of by how MUCH will Leicester both test and get the better of us in that area of the pitch.

But I do very-much like that predicted 11 in a lot of ways – especially with both Rodders & Fernandinho ahead of those as well as that ‘attacking diamond’ further up the pitch; with-presumably Benny & Kyle also ‘bombing on’ as our 2-defensive midfielders ‘sit & protect’. Yeah…looks quite good, especially considering the very hefty injury list we’re currently carrying.

Result? As my headline and opening sentence may suggest, I think this is going to be a tough fixture for us this afternoon.

I think what’ll go for us, aside from having exceptional players and following a really hard-working performance / well-deserved win in our league opener, is the fact that not only did Leicester fade so badly post-lockdown, where they lost 5 and conceded 14 goals in 10 games; but they’ve also started this season by conceding 4 goals in 3 games (league & cup) already. Put another way, they do very much “leak” at the moment and that’s definitely something we can, and I’m sure will, exploit.

But they weren’t top of the league after 2 games for nothing – they have a side packed with creativity & goal-scorers (7 in their first 2 league games) and that includes their assisting wing-backs too.

We really do have to be ‘on our toes’ at the back for this one but, if I’m right with my prediction, I think that ‘new ploy’ / middle pairing of ‘Rodders & Fern’ will certainly help to control the game better and quell some of the Foxes’ attacks at least.

I do think they’ll be goals at both ends in this one but I think we’ll come out of a potentially high-scoring game with more goals than our visitors. I’m going for an entertaining, perhaps nail-biting home win.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: Win

Result: Win

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: A northerly breeze – nothing too bad – does make this a chilly late afternoon / early evening for the players, staff and officials. As the game kicks off (4:30pm BST), anything left of the sun will have already disappeared behind the Colin Bell Stand and 13C will probably feel more like 8 in the shaded bowl of the stadium. Still…it’s gonna be a dry one at least.

Squad management – changes – priorities

Pep, largely to his credit, has most certainly treated the League Cup with a lot of respect; deploying strong teams with just a sprinkling of youth players in some rounds both in ‘the 11’ and on the bench. Winning the competition 3 years in a row; 4 times in 5 seasons is most-definitely testament to that!

But I think our manager could be forgiven if he changed that policy slightly this season.

Reasons?

·         The ‘fixture squeeze’. Games in 4 competition are gonna fly at us as a RAPID rate and as much as I personally love domestic cup competitions, something’s gotta give this season…and perhaps next season too. ‘Top clubs’ who are vying for bigger trophies do - and I think quite rightly - see the League Cup as the lowest priority of the season and so in our case this time round; we might just start to see a few new, young faces in the starting 11.

 

·         The club, manager and players’ desire to regain the Premier League title and, therefore perhaps, not-wanting to let this competition potentially get in the way with regards to possible injuries & fixture fatigue.

 

·         The club, manager and players’ desire to finally get their hands on the Champions League trophy [and then ditto the above sentence]…

 

·         And for this round / fixture in particular, the fact that we only played our opening league fixture last Monday night; we have another Premier League game less than 72-hours after this cup game and are likely to have 7 first-team players either out injured or Covid-19 restricted!

Bring on the kids then…

v AFC Bournemouth

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome (wish me luck!):

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

_____________________Delap_____________________

 

 

Torres___________________________________Mahrez

 

____________Bernabe_________Doyle______________

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Ake______________________________________Couto

 ________Harwood-Bellis_____Otamendi____________

 

 

_____________________Steffen___________________

Subs: Carson, Mendy, Walker, Laporte, Fernandinho, Foden, Jesus.

New bloke between the sticks comes in the form of USA stopper, Zack. Welcome and good luck fella!

Now, it has been suggested in some quarters that Eric Garcia might take part this evening but I’m thinking…really?! A recent head injury requiring 16 stiches and a player who still yearns to play his football for Barcelona? I could be wrong, of course, but I’m just not having that…and not least because I think it would be disrespectful to other central defenders. So, for me, the pairing at the back tonight will be Taylor & Nicolas. I think Nathan might get another run out and a chance, of course, of facing the club he’s just moved from but this time being given a left-sided role in the defence. Now I know that some may question the lad I’m predicting may play right-wing back because there have been stories very recently that he is to join Aro Muric & Pablo Moreno on loan for the rest of the season at Girona FC…but unlike his two City colleagues I don’t think he’s gone quite-just-yet. I’ve just got a feeling that with one right-wing back needed to be game-managed and one out injured, Pep might be canny enough to retain Yan for this fixture at least before sticking him on a plane to Spain.

Rodders might have to ‘go again’ to provide some experience and protection for the defence.

Although it’s not his natural / preferred side, I think we’ll see Ferran on the left wing against The Cherries…but I do expect him to roam / swap from time to time. “Old man” of the team, Riyad, on the right and in-between the flanking players is a very young duo of Adrian & Tommy.

What a night it would be for Liam if he was to be given a starting place in a lone-striker role at the Etihad Stadium against a side who were very recently playing their league football in the Premier League. That’s what I’m predicting.

Scott, who was recently given another 1-year loan deal, is likely to be given the reserve keeper job on the bench; Benjamin & Kyle might be joining him just in case there’s a change of left & right-wing backs required. I think we’ll see Aymeric being given a spot in ‘the 7’ following recent Covid-19 isolation and I think-also we might see him being given a run out ahead of the weekend league game. Captain Fernandinho might be another on ‘in there’ as cover and-could-well-be rotated with Rodders at some point in order to keep ‘em both fit & fresh. Phil certainly has ‘the legs’ to be on the subs bench in case needed and I’m going for both him & Gabriel to be our more attacking change-options should they be needed.

I could be well wrong with-all-that-lot…

Notable absences:

-       Ederson – Not selected / rested / protected.

-       Eric Garcia – Not selected / not risked following another head injury & stiches.

-       Joao Cancelo – Out until about mid-October with a foot injury.

-       John Stones – Not selected / rested / protected.

-       Oleksandr Zinchenko – Out until about mid-October with a muscular injury.

-       Bernardo Silva – Out until about mid-October with a quadriceps strain.

-       Ilkay Gundogan – In Covid-19 isolation up to and including 30.09.2020.

-       Kevin De Bruyne - Not selected / rested / protected.

-       Raheem Sterling - Not selected / rested / protected.

-       Sergio Aguero – Still training alone / recovering from knee surgery. Expected to return around early-to-mid November.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep, definitely. And I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing ‘em in action…if I can find it on somewhere.

Result? Some may argue that with SUCH a changed squad we could be leaving ourselves open to possible defeat. Not for me.

Not only are we at home (does that even matter much anymore with no fans in the ground?) but that’s ‘an 11’ packed-full of talent…and certainly enough to beat a team who lost big names in the summer and who have conceded 3 league goals in their opening 2 games (EVEN MIDDLESBROUGH HAVE SCORED AGAINST ‘EM!) and failed to score in ‘the 90’ in the last round of this competition; eventually going through 11-10 on penalties.

It’s a City win for me.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Damp, chilly and a little breezy. Yuk.