…leaving the door open for us to step further away from them in the table. Let’s hope we take advantage of their most-recent, very kind offer tonight.
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 6/11).
I wonder if, like me, Pep has been giving some extra thought to the left-side of our defence ahead of tonight’s clash. A certain Adama Traore can play on the left-flank but is predominantly a right-sided menace for most left-backs and his pace & power does cause problems.
- Do we continue with Oleksandr Zinchenko – a player who is no slouch himself for pace and who is not only in very good form but deserve a lot of credit for the work he’s put in, in order to look like a more-natural, left-wing back this season?
- How about Aymeric Laporte – a far-more defence-minded defender for the left side to-perhaps monitor the Spanish flyer more closely and who, despite the bad injury he suffered a while back leaving some City fans saying that he’s lost a percentage of speed, still has decent pace himself from my perspective at least.
- Does Guardiola shift Joao over to his less-favoured left? That certainly would allow Kyle Walker to take up his place on the right and, therefore, we’d have-arguably our fastest player on the other flank, just in case Traore is instructed to switch sides.
- Or, indeed, does our manager bring the pace & power of Benjamin Mendy back, in an attempt to fight fire with fire? Well…that’s been tried before against Wolves and if memory serves, it didn’t work out too well at all.
Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero____________________
Sterling_________________________________Mahrez
__________Gundogan________Silva_______________
____________________Rodri______________________
Laporte_________________________________Cancelo
______________Dias_________Stones______________
___________________Ederson_____________________
Subs: Steffen, Walker, Mendy, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Foden, Torres, Jesus.
No debate about the goalie – Ederson starts ‘between the sticks’ once again.
Okay…I’ve had a think and I reckon Pep may deploy Aymeric on the left for this one and when not keeping tabs on Adama; it allows those 3 central defenders to shuffle over AS ‘a 3’, which will then give licence for Joao to support the midfielders in attack to help break down our visitor’s defences. When as a 4, Ruben & John are the main, ‘central 2’.
Rodders to return to the starting line-up as our deeper-lying midfielder and to, hopefully, keep alert to any quick counter attacks.
Another left-sided quandary is…does completely-rested [at the weekend] Raheem start or does Phil get that position; a player who only featured for the last 29 minutes himself on Saturday. Well…it’s not always the case but I would say that if form is going to dictate the decision then, in terms of goals & assists in recent weeks at least, Raheem just about grabs it; despite still running down some cul-de-sacs and making some in-the-box bad decisions of late. Now, unless ‘the boss’ decides to go with no recognised striker for this one; Phil isn’t going to be the only disappointed, first-class midfielder / winger this evening. I’m going for Ilkay, Bernardo & Riyad as the 3 NOT to-be-feeling left out.
Sergio, I think, will be given another go from the start.
Zack is the reserve stopper; Kyle, Benjamin & Oleksandr provide the defensive cover from ‘the 9’; albeit largely flanking cover. Fernandinho, Kevin, who still looked largely off-pace & precision in his last outing despite getting an assist, Phil, Ferran & Gabriel make up the midfield / wing / attacking options from the side.
Notable absences:
- Eric Garcia – Not selected.
-
Nathan Ake – Continues his
return from injury; presumably still training alone as I’ve not seen a report
to say that he’s yet joined his teammates to step up the intensity. Update: Pep has confirmed that Nathan will play some part in training today ahead of tonight's game and will resume full training as of tomorrow.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Other than that, I’m fine with that.
Result? Since their teeth-grinding 2-3 home defeat to local rivals - and league-strugglers - West Bromwich Albion in mid-January and apart from a 1-0 away defeat to Crystal Palace at the end of that same month; our visitors tonight (8:00pm KO GMT) have hit some decent form; whereby they’ve picked up a more-than-decent 11 points from 15. They don’t score loads but, as we’ve come to know from a Nuno side; they can be hard-working and very organised both in midfield as well as at the back.
They’re actually in their best form of the season after a largely disappointing first half of…
Yes, fellow Blues, this is likely gonna be ANOTHER game where we have to keep banging hard on the oppo’s door(s) for a while before we break through, whilst at the same time beware of break-aways; especially with some pace in their attack not least from - but not only - the afore-mentioned, Adama Traore.
And, I’m sure I don’t have to remind most Blues, they have a horrible habit of not-only sharing the points with us in recent seasons but also taking home all 3! All credit and well done to them too.
But I think our manager knows our opponents’ threats very well now, along with what his ‘opposite number’ has done to us in the past in order to take points off us. He’ll have been reviewing past footage of our encounters as well as footage of Wolves’ recent, in-form games – he’ll have fully prepared his players for all eventualities, I’m sure of it.
And despite their best form of the season, I don’t think The Wanderers are quite the side they have been in recent season and certainly don’t appear quite as threatening since losing both Diogo Jota & Raul Jimenez through both sale & bad injury respectively.
Tough game ahead? Yes. Will it be another close scoreline? Yeah, I think it might-well be. Will we win? That’s what I’m going for - 21 straight wins and, for around 22 hours at least, 15 points clear at the top of the table. Who, seriously, 2 months into the season at the end of November thought that we’d be able to say that 3 months later?!
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Lost
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
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