Return of The Blades

As our visitors make a very quick-trip back over the Pennines, let’s hope we can manage a better [local] outcome from when they last visited the area on Wednesday, hey? 😊

v Sheffield United

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 10/11).

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

­____________________________________________

____________________Foden___________________

 

_Sterling______________________________Mahrez_

 

__________Gundogan________Silva_____________

 

____________________Rodri____________________

Cancelo________________________________Walker

 

____________Stones__________Dias_____________

 

 

___________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Steffen, Mendy, Zinchenko, Garcia, Laporte, Fernandinho, Bernabe, Torres, Jesus.

Ed continues ‘between the sticks’.

Some doubt in my head about the wing-backs – Oleksandr would consider himself unlucky not to make ‘the 11’ on recent form and Joao has been so good on the right / drifting into midfield also that he might also feel a little ‘put out’ being shoved over to the left. However, I think Kyle might be bursting for a starting ‘run out’ and, in the last Blues / Blades clash, he was really good and, indeed, scored the only goal / winner. SO…Joao, John, Ruben & Kyle is my guess.

Rodders to sit in front of those; Raheem, Ilkay, Barnardo, Riyad & Phil make up a very fluid, interchangeable ‘attacking 5’.

Zack is the reserve ‘stopper’; Benjamin, Oleksandr, Eric & Aymeric are the 4-defensive change-options from ‘the 9’. Fernandinho, Adrian, Ferran & Gabriel make up the midfield / wing / attacking choices from the side.

Notable absences:

-       Nathan Ake – Still not ready for a return - still working on his fitness comeback.

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Injured and anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks away from a return.

-       Sergio Aguero – Still isolating and suffering with the symptoms of Covid-19. He will be re-assessed once he is re-tested.

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

I’ve always got questions about Riyad’s consistency & contribution but he had a decent game in midweek. I’d be happy with that predicted ‘starting 11’.

Result? I think, in December, if you’d have told any dedicated football fan of a Premier League team or otherwise that, come January, Sheffield United will play 5 games and come out of it with a, W W L W W, they’d have thought you’d have-had too much Christmas sherry! An’-yeah-sure; that’s ‘in all competitions’, which includes 2 F.A. Cup games against lower-league opposition…but it also includes 2 league wins in just 15 days after months of not being able to BUY a league win, as the phrase goes.

That suggests to me that they’ve finally found a little of what impressed so many non-blades fans last season; their first season back in the ‘top flight’.

So, once again, we find ourselves pitted against a hard-working side who can be so-very hard to break down. It’s another heavy shift our lads will have to put it in and I’m instantly reminded [as I type those words] how flippin’ hard we had to fight for all-3 points in the reverse fixture back in October, which left me full of praise for our opponents after our narrow, 0-1 victory.

But work hard we do and if we continue with the level of intensity & creativity that we’ve shown in the last few weeks, then we should have enough in us to break down any resistance.

It might not be another 5-0’er but I think it will be another 3 points to us.

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

Prediction: Draw

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Dry, cold, windy. The board might read 4C but a strong, easterly wind will make it feel more like 0C or even below, I’m sure. I can’t imagine any of the conditions affecting the game other than, perhaps, the cold wind making the players want to run around even more…