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Although it means asking Rodders to ‘go again’ (he was withdrawn on 61 minutes 3 days ago), I’ve got a feeling that our manager will deploy the same ‘central-midfield 2’, with rested Fernandinho partnering the Spanish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