Go strong at Swansea?

Although a lot of players deserve a bit of a break, I think our manager has a good understanding of how difficult these types of cup fixtures can be, as well as having a lot of respect for all opponents and competitions.

Swansea, most definitely, need to be respected…

v Swansea City

Liberty Stadium

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____________________

 

 

___Foden____________________________Torres___

 

__________Gundogan_________Silva_____________

 

_________________Fernandinho_________________

Mendy__________________________________Walker

 

____________Laporte_________Garcia____________

 

 

____________________Steffen___________________

Subs: Ederson, Cancelo, Zinchenko, Dias, Rodri, Bernabe, Doyle, Mahrez, Sterling.

As I say, we have to change some first-team players, I would suggest, to both rest & protect them ahead of another difficult & important league game on Saturday but some, I’m sure, will be asked to put in another starting-place shift.

Zack, I’m assuming, is gonna be our F.A. Cup keeper and-so takes over the gloves for this one.

I’m going for our manager to completely change the back-4 too and bring in Benjamin, Aymeric, Eric & Kyle; assuming the latter is deemed fit enough after seemingly still-struggling a little with post-Covid-19 fatigue.

Fernandinho steps in as the guard in front of the defence as well as wearing the skipper’s armband.

Ahead of the Brazilian veteran, I’m going for Phil, Ilkay, Bernardo & Ferran; 3 of which are likely to be withdrawn ASAP in the second half IF the game / scoreline feels right to do so.

Gabriel to get a starting run-out ahead of all of those.

Ed steps back as reserve keeper; Joao, Oleksandr & Ruben are the defensive replacement options in ‘the 9’. Rodders, Adrian, Tommy, Riyad & Raheem make up the midfield / wing / attacking choices from the side (although I could be wrong about one of the last two and Pep might want to find a place for Liam Delap instead). Remember, 5 subs allowed in this competition at the moment and that doesn’t include any concussion substitutions.

Notable absences:

-       Nathan Ake – Injured and still no further detail / update on what exactly is taking so long for the Dutch defender to recover from a muscular injury he suffered with many weeks ago now.

-       John Stones – Not selected - rested / protected.

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Injured. Going off the initial assessment, we could see the Belgium midfielder back anywhere from 10-days to 3-½ weeks’ time.

-       Sergio Aguero – Has started very limited (around 15 minutes) training with his teammates, before retreating to conduct comeback training on his own. Slowly, slowly for the Argentine striker is the plan, so it could be some weeks yet before we see him included in any match-day squad. In a recent blog-posting I did suggest that it could be Arsenal away on the 21^st February; if not, I can’t see him then being risked away in the Champions League 3 days later so, perhaps, West Ham at home in the league on 27^th February might sound more realistic / safer.

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

Can’t see anything wrong there.

Result? Good team, good coach and in form.

And I do mean “coach” – a fella, I have to admit, I had to look up and it’s clear from his limited playing career that this is one of those managers who started to study the coaching side of the game very early on, after it was suggested to him as an alternative to playing. And having started with youth teams for many years; still at just 41, it seems to be working for Welshman, Steve Cooper.

Our hosts seem well-drilled / organised, which is obvious when you look at their “Against” column in the league; with just 15 leaked in 27 games, which is way, WAY better than most teams around them (they sit 3^rd, just 2 points off the top with a game in hand over the current league leaders).

Their “For” column is about the same as most around ‘em and looking back over their last 7 or 8 games shows that their goals come from many different players / sources, which tells me that they really do have a collective-team mentality.

So, I see a really good, tough game in South Wales this evening (an early 5:30pm KO GMT) and hence-why I don’t think Guardiola will start with any EDS players, as he did in the last round; whilst hoping, I’m sure, to be able to bring ‘em on at some stage.

I think it’ll be a tight affair and, as happened in round 4, we might concede. But apart from perhaps a Mendy blunder; I can’t see those personnel changes upsetting our momentum too much and I think the high-confidence & form we’re in – plus hard work of course - will see us progress to the quarter finals.

It’s a close away win for me.

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

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Freezing again. Just as the game kicks off, the sun should be disappearing from the sky, leaving the temperature at just 1C. It’s not gonna feel like that though – more like -4 or 5C with a still-stiff, easterly breeze creating the ‘chill factor’. The actual temperature is likely to-then hit zero or below as the clock ticks on but the Liberty Stadium does have undersoil heating, which should easily ‘ward off’any ground frost / hard patches on the playing surface.