The ‘crazy times’ continue.
First of all, the very serious pandemic put a pause on the season that lasted for months; the resumption then saw fixtures flying at us at a rate most of us have never seen before, leading to a league campaign that didn’t finish until 26th July!
The Champions League then took ‘centre stage’ and, for us at least, didn’t finish until 15th August; resulting in our agreed delayed start, along with our neighbours from the borough of Trafford, of the 2020-21 season to give us the same break-period as the rest.
Then, as the Champions League came to a conclusion, the preliminary rounds of the very-same competition for the 2020-21 season had already begun in some countries! Weird.
For us, we now kick off the season a full 9 days, 7 hours and 45 minutes after the first Premier League game of the season kicked off and we’ll-already find ourselves 2 games behind most other teams as we start our opener.
Additionally, we now face 4 games in the first 13 days in both the league as well as the League Cup; 5 in the same amount of time if we progress past AFC Bournemouth in the League Cup on the evening of 24th September.
It’s most definitely ‘a sign of things to come’ over the next 2 seasons and I will TRY to keep up and produce all pre-match blog-postings - some may be basic / short ones.
And I get the feeling that those clubs with no more than average-size/quality squads are really gonna struggle over the next 2 seasons as the ‘fixture squeeze’ takes it affect; especially those involved in European competition as well as 3 domestic trophies…and not to mention players involved in international friendlies & competitions.
v Wolverhampton Wanderers
 |
| Molineux |
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:
_____________________Jesus____________________
Sterling__________________________________Mahrez
__________De Bruyne__________Silva_____________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Mendy___________________________________Walker
_____________Ake____________Stones____________
____________________Ederson___________________
Subs: Steffen, Zinchenko, Garcia, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Foden, Torres.
Ederson to resume between the sticks.
I think there's little doubt over the selection of our wing-backs, so for me Benjamin & Kyle 'get the nod' there. Circumstances should see new-signing Nathan get his debut...and I'll speak in more detail shortly about how I 'ummed & ahhed' over who would partner him. I've gone for John to be picked by his boss on Monday night.
Rodders to 'sit' ahead of those and ahead of him, a dangerous quartet of Raheem, Kevin, Bernardo & Riyad, I'd say (I might be wrong and we could see boss-favourite Gundogan instead of Bernardo somewhere there abouts).
Gabriel 'tops the lot' up front.
Having returned from-being on loan last season, Zack takes his position on a City bench for the first time since we signed him way back on 11th December 2018...and is likely to get a start in the League Cup on Thursday, I'd say. Oleksandr, want-away Eric & Fernandinho can all provide various defensive cover from 'the 7'. Ilkay, Phil and exciting talent / new signing Ferran provide more attacking / creative options from the bench.
Notable absences:
- Aymeric Laporte – Has only just resumed training following isolation due to Covid-19 and, so, is not deemed fit enough for this game.
- Nicolas Otamendi – Not selected.
- Joao Cancelo – Hasn’t been seen training with the rest of the squad; haven’t heard his name mentioned otherwise and so I’m assuming that he’s not ready to start on Monday night. Not selected / not fit & ready.
- Sergio Aguero – Still training alone in his slow recovery from knee surgery.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Well, I’m certainly not going to hide my true feelings about concerns with regards to the flakiness, at times, in defending of both Benjamin Mendy & John Stones. And, with that in mind; I might-therefore be tempted to deploy 3 central defenders with the absence of Aymeric Laporte in a fluid, 5-4-1 / 3-6-1-type formation in order to ‘swell the defensive ranks’, although Pep’s experiments with 3 central defenders haven’t exactly worked for him in the past…at our club at least.
Other than that, that’s about as strong-a-side (and it is strong) we can possibly muster at the moment with the personnel available.
I was dithering at lot about who our manager might go with to partner new signing, Nathan, at the back…
· Garcia – Still wants to leave and perhaps he’s a little on the slow & small side for this potentially fast & physical game when partnered with Nathan for ‘the opener’?
· Fernandinho – Certainly experience enough and perhaps a good choice to ‘hold the hand’ of Nathan in his first competitive game for City…but perhaps not enough pace himself these days to be able to cope with a starting place in this type of away fixture.
· Nicholas Otamendi – Just too unpredictable and not disciplined enough at times to go with our new signing for this fixture, I would suggest.
…and, so, it seems to me that Guardiola might just put his faith in our rested / fresh England international.
Result? No City fan who watches every game needs telling by me that the men in gold & black have become a bit of a bogey side for us lately…and that’s not to say they haven’t deserved some of their points against us in recent seasons.
I do recall very clearly, in fact, when I went away to Wolves in our opening away game of the season 2018-19 season discussing, in our group as we walked to the ground, what we thought the outcome would be. There must have been about a dozen of us and apart from myself and the friend who got me my match-day ticket; everyone had us down for a win.
It was The Wanderers’ first game back in the top division after being promoted and both myself and my mate were being a little more cautious. In fact, we both said, “…a draw”, which turned out to be the correct result; despite their goal coming from a Willy Boly handball / fake header.
We didn’t look very sharp that day and I think the Wolves smelt that about us 15 minutes or so into the game; stepped up their intensity and gave us a really good game…as well as a few sneaky bruises I seem to recall.
But since then, despite beating a largely 10-man Wolves on our patch, they have most-definitely had the better of us.
All things considered – and that’s our hosts already-having ‘game time’ under their belts; them very recently losing winger / forward Diogo Jota to Liverpool…but also us-missing both Laporte & Aguero and not-having-yet ‘kicked a ball in anger’ this season – I’m going for a draw, I’m sorry to say Blues.
I hope I’m wrong in the RIGHT way of course…
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Lost
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Decent - nothing much happening. 17 / 18C, no rain and no breeze is about all you can say on the subject. Fine evening for football and the players with no weather issues affecting the game.
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