With last season running-as-far-as just a couple of days short of June for us; very soon afterwards followed the Euros and THEN the Tokyo Olympics; all of which left me feeling a little ‘sported out’ and needing to switch off from it all, I have to admit.
However, when it came to it, I found that I was keen to watch our pre-season friendlies and that definitely reignited the Manchester City / football flame at least.
Now, we start our season - as we often do these days - with a Community Shield match at the Etihad of the South.
I’m going start off with my usual predicted 11, subs and match outcome (huh…wish me luck with this one!) but there’s a little waffle afterwards as well as a blog announcement at the very bottom.
 |
| Wembley |
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 10/11).
Fluid 4-1-5-0 / 4-6-0:
_____________________________________________
____________________Knight____________________
Edozie______Gundogan_____Palmer________Mahrez
__________________Fernandinho_________________
Mendy_________________________________Cancelo
______________Ake___________Dias______________
____________________Steffen____________________
Update - 07.08.2021: First of all, despite sourcing THREE seperate pieces of information in the last week that informed me there was to be 7 substitues on the bench in the Community Shield, I've since found out that 9 are allowed and I've had this "confirmed" by another source. Therefore, I've made some alterations...
Secondly, I released my pre-match blog-posting before the second half / embargoed section of Pep's pre-match press conference and it's now come to light that there are a couple of injuries to 'key players'.
Subs:
Carson, Zinchenko,
Laporte, Gomes, Rodri, Silva, De Bruyne, Grealish, Torres, Jesus. 6 of those 9 substitutions are allowed in the Community Shield
as opposed to a reversion to 3 from 7 in the Premier
League this-coming season.
I think, as one other press source recently suggested also, that we’ll see a similar line-up to the ones we’ve seen in our pre-season games. So…
Zack in net.
A back-4 of Benjamin, Nathan, Ruben & Joao.
Fernandinho ‘holding’.
Ahead of our skipper, I think we’ll see an attacking 5 of Samuel, Ilkay, Cole, Riyad & Ben; with the latter deployed as the most advanced forward player.
Scott the likely keeper back-up, I would think; Oleksandr & Aymeric the only defensive replacement options from the side. I’m going for Claudio, Bernardo, Kevin & Ferran to be the midfield / wing / attacking subs in ‘the 7’.
Notable absences:
- Ederson – Not selected.
- John Stones – Not selected.
- Kyle Walker – Not selected.
- Kevin De Bruyne – Injured. Apparently, the Belgium international is still feeling some effects of the injury he sustained whilst playing for his national side. However, although he will miss our Wembley clash against Leicester, it is hoped that he will be ready to take part in next weekend’s game.
- Phil Foden – Out with a foot injury sustained at the Euros and will miss the start of the season. According to his manager, it's not yet known how long 'little Phil' (one of Jack Grealish's nicknames for the Stockport-born midfielder) will be out for but he will definitely miss our opening Premier League game on 15th August and, by the sounds of it, our second league game / first home match a week later.
- Raheem Sterling – Not selected.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Gotta just say…yeah.
Result? So hard to predict. Going with my gut? I think it’ll be a draw at full time and, therefore, extra time will be played. If we can avoid penalties then I’m going for us to win in the extra 30 minutes but if not, I’ll probably have that ‘horrible feeling’ once more.
Fingers crossed then – a Manchester City win is what I’m going for.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during the game: Sunshine & showers is the main theme and 18C is below-average for this time of the year but a still-decent temperature. Not sure if they’ll pull the roof over for this one.
Things that stood out for me worth mentioning from our 3, pre-season games.
- Starting at the back, I thought Zack Steffen looked sharp and was most definitely ‘in the flow’ with his defending teammates whilst spraying the ball around / passing it out from the back.
- I thought that Benjamin Mendy had a largely ropey couple of games first off but had a much better 3rd.
- Nathan Ake looked good and seemed well up for challenging for a first-team place. It’ll be tough to nudge aside someone with the class of Aymeric Laporte and last season’s transformed player, John Stones, and I would say almost impossible to dislodge Ruben Dias. However, I genuinely wish the 26-year-old good luck; I like him, I think he’s a good player.
- Fernandinho was excellent – coolness personified on so many occasions.
- Speaking of which, I think Claudio Gomes does a pretty decent impression of our Brazilian skipper whenever he comes on in his position - he looks good every time I’ve seen him.
- I felt a bit sorry for Cole Palmer who, perhaps, was trying a little too hard to impress at times; certainly in the first two pre-season games at least. His energy, desire and skills were all there for Pep to see but he fluffed ‘a sitter’ against Preston and I see that our penalty woes (v Barnsley on this occasion) continue to spread down to our youth players; with Cole being the latest City player to fail from ‘12 yards’. However, I thought he had a far better game against Blackpool in the 3rd match.
- Ilkay Gundogan did an amazing impression of a ‘ghost in the box’ v Blackpool! Carrying on from last season; he continues to reinvent himself…
- Samuel Edozie certainly has potential and did very, very well indeed.
- Ben Knight seems a very confident player who never stopped harassing the oppo’s defences in our pre-season encounters. A naturally-attacking right-winger / forward who was pretty-much deployed as our more advanced, central threat in the absence of Liam Delap and Gabriel Jesus.
- Riyad Mahrez was outstanding!
Some things I’m looking forward to this season beyond the obvious, such as (hopefully) winning stuff.
· Being proven wrong about Benjamin Mendy…but not while holding my breath, of course.
· Better fortune with injuries for Nathan Ake.
· Aymeric Laporte keeping his head down and working to get his place back – I’d hate for him to leave!
· More consistently-good performances from Joao Cancelo…well, as consistent as he can possibly get if he continues to be 2nd-choice to Kyle Walker and only occasionally used as an alternative-style midfielder / inverted wing-back. That could be part of the problem, of course, but I also see him as a player who has ability…but one who doesn’t necessarily unleash it all that often whilst expressing a sullen demeanour, in my opinion.
· Some improvement from Rodri; some sign that he really wants to make that position his own at City for many years to come. I think we need a lively, ‘hunter-killer’ and not just a positionally-aware / decent passer in that position…once again in my humble opinion. Can he become that player?
· Similar to Nathan, less injuries to Kevin De Bruyne.
· A ‘reset’ for Raheem Sterling domestically – hoping that a largely-terrific Euro campaign has washed away whatever it was that was muddying his Manchester City performances in the second half of last season.
· Just seeing Phil Foden ‘doing his thing’!
· Seeing Jack Grealish add even more quality to an already top-quality-packed midfield / wing department, whilst at the same time not seeing him fain contacts and ‘going to ground’ too easily. I’m also hoping to see a mature attitude from a player who I think has grown up now but who certainly had a ‘questionable character’ not so long ago. Can he handle the bigger stage? He certainly has the best manager to point him in the right direction as well as some excellent role model teammates and having seen his first interview on MCFCTV, he sounds like a really lovely fella who already has plenty of well-established friends at City.
· Liam Delap being given a chance – perhaps given the domestic cups and some substitute appearances in the Prem from time to time. However, I suspect that if we bring in a striker then Liam will be loaned out to get some first team experience in the Championship this-coming season – 3 potential clubs have already been mentioned…
· Similarly, giving Ferran Torres a starting role in both domestic cups and seeing him progress further from a decent last season. I say because with the improvement & consistency Riyad Mahrez displayed last season, it could be very difficult for the Spaniard to knock the Algerian out of his right-sided, attacking role in the other two competitions.
· Playing Brentford. Hey? I’ve sort of developed a ‘soft spot’ and little bit of interest in The Bees over the last decade; fuelled initially when Uwe Rosler was in charge of 'em and he took the West London side to a play-off final, which they lost 2-1. I even e-mailed the club on the morning of that fixture to wish ‘em “Good luck” and they replied within minutes thanking me. Since then, I’ve kept half-an-eye on their endeavours only ever so briefly and from time to time; often ‘feeling for them’ as they tripped up (shot ‘emselves in the foot might be more accurate) towards the end of a campaign; either just failing to reach a play-off final or losing another one. Now, it’s a new stadium and the first time they’ll be playing football in the top division for a whopping 74 years! Not at the expense of us when we meet ‘em, of course, but I say good luck to them; I hope they stay up.
· Covid disappearing OR, at the very least, not disrupting football as much as possible. Flippin’-well stay safe everyone, especially in the autumn & winter months…
· Pep not over-thinking it when it comes to BIG games against very good-tactical managers. Whatever that is…please get it out of your flippin’ ‘ead, mate!
Any comments on our new kits?
I think I might just leave that for an ‘all in one’ article after the 3rd strip has been officially released.
Missing in action.
After this blog-posting, I’m gonna be missing the first 2 league games, blog-wise at least, due to a long-awaited, week’s holiday.
I’m still very much hoping to watch both games live but the next time I’ll be doing a pre-match posting will be ahead of our home game against Arsenal on Saturday 28th August (12:30pm KO BST).
It’s nice to be back and thank you, as always, for taking the time to visit and read.
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