As if predictions this season weren’t hard enough!
The week just gone…
So, as previously announced, I went away for a week but tried to keep in touch with ‘all things City’.
West Ham away, I managed to watch the whole game and…my word, we were so-very-poor in the first half! This came off the back of the Porto victory; a game I didn’t get to see but read reports of a very underwhelming City performance, despite the decent, 3-point start.
So, with those accounts of the midweek-game-just-gone still in my head as we kicked off at the London Stadium, I could almost-instantly tell that we [still] looked ‘off colour’. I feared the worst.
And…do you know when you’ve followed your club / watched your team for so very long that you can just SENSE what’s about to happen?
Well, I looked at a very flat-looking City side - one that was SO slow in their build up and were so poor in the final 3rd as well as the opposition’s box – and I turned to my wife predicting that we would rue our missed chances against a side that, to me at least, looked like they were just WAITING for us to hurt them. Sure enough, and within 10 minutes or so of my ‘crystal ball moment’, Michail Antonio scissor kicked in the opener past Ederson, albeit from a debated and slightly-dodgy-looking handball in the build-up on the right.
We were a lot better in the second half…but a lot better from a low starting point, so still not great. We looked a little sharper and I did keep reminding myself that we had only-just played in the Champions League 2-½ days early, so perhaps allowances should be made for them appearing jaded.
But I think an added frustration, for me at least, was that if various players had made better decisions in front of goal in both halves and gone with their ‘first instinct’ rather than taking extra touches, we had enough chances to score another 3 or 4! That’s not fatigue, that’s a lack of confidence. But then again, our hosts had late second half chances too and I think that was a classic example of a much-deserved, ‘share of the points’.
So that’s an inconsistent start to the 2020-21 league campaign; a below-par performance but a win in our opening Champions League match and a contrasting game of 2 halves in London. What next?
Oh of course! An absolutely brilliant performance away at Marseille!
After the Hammers game and before our lads had travelled to France, I said to a mate in a text message that not only have we not looked like a Pep side but I think the manager himself needs to start picking ‘better 11s’ and try to put more ‘round pegs in round holes’. So, still on holiday, I was delighted to see the starting 11 on my phone an hour before kick-off.
I sort of had it down as a kind of…4-6-0 in my head and I’m sure it was a fluid system, as is often the case, but pundits later referred to it as a 4-3-3; with Ferran Torres right up front in the middle (I listened to the first half and watched a sometimes-buffering second on a small screen).
The selection & system worked a dream but it wasn’t just the shape of the team and very good individual performances, which we’ve been missing a lot of this season; the energy & sharpness was back! Our Gallic hosts just couldn’t cope.
Bringing us up to date…
And now we travel over the Pennines to face a side who look SO off colour and so-very-different from last season that it got a 20-minute or so debate-slot on one national radio station yesterday afternoon.
Sheffield United were never a high-scoring side last season but this season the goals really do appear to have dried up…and that’s despite splashing out £23.5M on 20-year old, England Under-21 international, Rhian Brewster from Liverpool. Just 3 goals in 6 league outings so far for The Blades and dumped out of the League Cup after scoring just 1 in ‘the 90’ before exiting via penalties at Turf Moor.
Are they ‘there for the taking’ then tomorrow afternoon? Well…IF we play like we did in Europe in midweek then I would say that there should be little doubt over the outcome. But there’s that word involving a side that can-still-very-much be classed as inconsistent this season…IF.
Read on…
v Sheffield United
 |
| Bramall Lane |
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog-wise, was the Porto game: 9/11).
Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-6-0 / 4-3-3:
______________________________________________
____________________Torres____________________
__Sterling_____________________________Mahrez__
__________________________De Bruyne___________
__________Gundogan___________________________
____________________Rodri_____________________
Zinchenko_______________________________Walker
____________Laporte_________Dias_______________
___________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Steffen, Cancelo, Garcia, Stones, Foden, Silva, Delap.
I was very tempted to suggest that all 11 ‘go again’ and although I haven’t, quite; I don’t think it’ll be all that different from our last outing.
Ederson has the gloves, of course.
Same ‘back 4’ – Oleksandr, Aymeric, Ruben & in-form Kyle.
Rodders the deepest midfielder; in-form also Ilkay just ahead of him and Kevin the most advanced / attacking central midfielder.
I think we might see Raheem revert back to the left [from last Tuesday] with largely rested [in midweek] Riyad on the right…and I think Ferran might get another go at-being the central focal point ‘up top’.
Zack is the reserve keeper; Joao, Eric & John are the defensive replacement options from the side. Phil might have to settle for a spot on the bench as a midfield change-option with Bernardo alongside him for the midfield / wing department. Surely, against Sheff-U, this would be a game to have the height option of Liam on the bench as a striker change, should it be deemed necessary. That’s what I’m going for.
Notable absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Injured and no news on progress or a return date.
- Nathan Ake – Making progress, apparently, but not ready for this game. Return date unknown.
- Fernandinho – From the announcement of his injury the other week, he should be about 3 to 5 weeks away from a return.
- Gabriel Jesus – Likewise, he is likely to be in contention in about a week to 10-days’ time.
- Sergio Aguero – Making a less-speedy return from injury and still not near training with the rest of the squad.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? ‘Beware the wounded animal’, are the words in the back of my mind. I think, with the pressure they must-already be feeling, that they’ll give us a fight for sure.
However, in addition to what I’ve already said about our hosts, they also have a little unrest in the camp with John Lundstram kicking up a bit of a stink in recent days, apparently. That could leave a bit of a bad taste in the dressing room to add to their on-the-field woes.
‘On paper’, this should be an away win…and that’s what I’m going for. HOWEVER…we will have to show the same intensity we did in France the other day and be ‘up for the fight’ if we are to come away with all the points.
I think we ‘have our tails up now’ and, therefore I repeat; I’m going for a City win. Don’t let it slip lads…
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Wet and REALLY windy! Gusts are forecasted to be around the 45MPH mark during the game so that ball really does need to stay as close to the grass as possible, I would suggest. The weather could well have an influence on the game and with rain falling on the pitch non-stop from late Friday night and right through the match, so could the pitch. At least it’s warm rain; 15C is the slightly odd, late October temperature…
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