Reset

It’s been a wonderful run full of fantastic football, hasn’t it? Pep himself, a few weeks ago, said that it won’t last and that we will lose a game but…did it really have to be against THEM?

I’d say no…it didn’t

Guardiola is an amazing manager. Furthermore, he’s the best Manchester City manager of all time. I’m even going to go one step further by saying that, when we were struggling a bit early on in the season; when it appeared, at times, that teams had “worked us out”, as many fans & pundits put it, and that we seemingly had no answer or ‘Plan B’; our Spanish boss gave us the answers and, I would say, a ‘Plan B+’.

I also think, in that same time, he’s improved the quality & consistency of individual players such as Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko & Riyad Mahrez.

So why, when faced with a “big game” (I think we can describe a derby game where 1^st played 2^nd a big game despite the points gap) does he all-too-often, not always, overthink things and / or seemingly-choose wrong personnel?

Of course, that’s all about opinions and I don’t know about you, the reader, but when I saw in the pre-match line-up that there was no Kyle Walker against a pacey, counter-attacking side; when I saw no Phil Foden in place of a recently-flaky Raheem Sterling and when I saw no in-form Bernardo Silva…I screwed up my eyes slightly and scratched my head a little.

And it turns out, I wasn’t alone.

As if they could read my thoughts, I’ve since read dozens of on-line comments from City fans saying exactly the same thing; some even agreeing with my comments in my pre-match blog posting that it might have been wise to run with no striker from the start of last Sunday’s game (huh…at least we wouldn’t have given away that early penalty had-we-have done so!).

After we’d ridden the Manyoo blitz-storm that they threw at us in the first 13 minutes or so, I thought we’d turned the tide and did increasingly well throughout the rest of the ‘first 45’. However, we did that without really threatening and with, also, a still-clearly off-pace Kevin De Bruyne who was firing misdirected passes to both empty spaces or players in red shirts; albeit he improved a little as the half went on, I thought.

However – and I think this is the most disappointing thing – that improvement from both the Belgium international and the rest of his teammates just halted from ‘minute 1’ of the second half and, just as they did in the first 13 minutes of the game, Manyoo simply took control and dominated most of the rest of the match. A deserved win for them? Huh…there’s no doubt about that for me and I think that’s what stings a little as our terrific run came to an end.

And just to finish and turn back to our manager one last time…why was he so slow to change things? It’s not the first time I’ve thought that whenever we’re behind or we’re struggling / things don’t look quite right. It took 65 minutes to make the change that should have been the case from the start – Walker for Cancelo – and another “should have been”, Phil for Gabriel, didn’t occur until ‘minute 71’! Result? 0-2.

Hopefully lessons learnt there and although every game is a big game in itself and for many reasons, starting not least with tonight’s home fixture against The Saints; we’ll see for sure if Pep has-indeed understood his errors (assuming he sees them as faults, of course) when we head into a REALLY big game.

v Southampton

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).

I think we’ll see SOME rotation this evening (6:00pm KO GMT) – just a little ‘freshening up’ of things might just be what the Doctor ordered after a slight flattening of our effervescence in recent games; where we’ve also conceded 4 goals in our last 3 outings.

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

____________________Aguero____________________

 

 

Foden____________________________________Torres

 

__________Gundogan__________Silva______________

 

__________________Fernandinho__________________

Zinchenko________________________________Walker

____________Laporte_________Stones_____________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Steffen, Cancelo, Ake, Dias, Rodri, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Sterling, Jesus.

No change with the keeper, though, as Ederson continues to take charge of the gloves.

I think Oleksandr & John will ‘get the nod’ to ‘go again’ but, for this one, will be joined by Aymeric & Kyle.

I think, also, we’ll see ‘our skipper’ and Brazilian international, Fernandinho, start in place of Rodders; a player I also believe we would have benefitted from having on from the start in our last game and despite our opponents’ counter-attacking pace (I see little, if any, difference in the pace of both Fernandinho & Rodders to make a difference).

Ahead of the 35-year-old, I think we’ll see an almost completely new attacking 5 [from the last match] and although Ilkay might be asked to put in another starting shift – hopefully regaining his goal-machine touch in the process – I think he’ll be joined by Phil, Bernardo, Ferran & Sergio.

Zack is the reserve keeper once again; Joao, Nathan & Ruben are the defensive replacement option in ‘the 9’. Rodri, Kevin, Riyad, Raheem & Gabriel wait on the side to be called on in case there’s a change needed in the midfield / wing / attacking department.

Notable absences:

-       Benjamin Mendy – Not selected.

-       Eric Garcia – Not selected.

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

Yeah. I think this is a good game to test Sergio ‘from the off’ once more and although I’d feel sorry for a mostly-in-form Riyad; equally I’m looking forward to Ferran being released form the start and on his preferred right-side. If so, I hope we’d see him with the handbrake off should he get his starting opportunity this evening.

Result? Southampton were a side, in the first-third of the season, where I had 2 or 3 of their defenders in my Fantasy Football team and, where, I did exceptionally well from their inclusion. Our visitors were a strong, organised unit that teams really did struggle to break down but where, also, they hunted in packs and hurt teams at the ‘business end’ too.

Then it all started to go horribly wrong.

Injuries and…I dunno what else put the brakes on their season but even with the brakes on, it couldn’t help their position in the league slide ever-so-steadily downwards; almost as if someone had greased the pads.

Nothing seemed to go right for them in certain games either and it was a good job they’d had such a great start to the season because by the end of match-day 26, they were hanging just 7 points above the ‘drop zone’.

They finally won match 27 at the league’s bottom side, Sheffield United, but as Fulham gained 3 points at Anfield that same week; the south-coast side still stand just 7 points from the bottom 3.

It doesn’t help their plight that Danny Ings has picked up another injury but, on the flip side, I think what that does to them – in addition to their boost at-gaining their first 3 points in a long while – is to make them an even tougher side to break through both midfield & defence-wise (they have all defenders back fit now, as far as I know).

Yes, it’s gonna be another-repeated battering-ram job, I would suggest folks…

Pep said in his pre-match press conference that by Tuesday, the players’ disappointment from Sunday’s defeat had turned to-them-being, “…completely on fire to try to do a good game tomorrow”. I hope so and had little doubt that would be the case – it’ll be needed, as I’ve already suggested.

Could be a good game this and, in fact, even though they are missing Danny Ings; they do have other dangerous & creative players and it wouldn’t surprise me if we did-indeed concede for a 4^th-successive match.

All things considered though – even if we ARE breached – I’m going for us to start with a win after hitting the ‘reset button’ last Sunday.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game - LOOK AT THE PREDICTED DEFENCE BACK THEN!)

Expected weather conditions during the game: A big test for the drainage of our pitch today, as it’s been raining quite a bit since about midnight and it’s set to get even heavier this afternoon. Although it might go from torrential to lighter rain as the ref blows to start the game, it’ll remain windy too; with average speeds of 14/15MPH…but with gusts of around 30 to 40. Huh…at least it’s mild’ish wind & rain, as the match both starts & finishes at 11C. I would say the ‘greasy pitch’ could be an influencing factor on the game; I’m not sure if the wind will penetrate the high-sided stadium much at pitch level.