If EVER there was a need for the home fans to leave the Etihad with a hoarse throat it’s Sunday 8th May 2022. I’ve got a feeling that the players will need a lift and, so, there’s no time for fans to be sat in almost silence as they nervously chew their nails wondering if our lads have enough ‘left in their tank’ to at least come away from this season having retained the Premier League title.
I tried to message the WeAre1894 group the day after our defeat in Spain to suggest, if they weren’t considering it regardless, that they make a rallying call to the fans and even approach the club asking them to put on something special inside the ground just before this Sunday’s kick off in order to ‘gee up’ the crowd. However, their Twitter account doesn’t accept messages; neither does their Facebook page and their advertised membership WEB site doesn’t work / exists!
A hell of a lot of City fans still say that the Premier League is far more important than a European trophy in their hearts & minds, so I just hope that there are 1,000s of those mindset-fans at M11 on Sunday afternoon and that they display their desires about wanting to win the only competition we’re still in by ‘singing their hearts out for the lads’ for the whole 90+ minutes…
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| Etihad Stadium |
Unbelievably, not one journalist asked Pep in the 19+ minute, pre-embargo section of the press conference about the fitness of either John Stones or Kyle Walker! Since then – and as I type these words early on Saturday morning – that embargoed section hasn’t been released as yet. One source said that both are doubtful…but that sounds like standard guesswork amidst the same lack of information coming out of the club.
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:
_____________________________________________
Jesus__________________________________Mahrez
____________________Foden____________________
________De Bruyne_____________Silva___________
_____________________Rodri____________________
Zinchenko______________________________Cancelo
___________Laporte_____________Dias___________
____________________Ederson___________________
Subs: Steffen, Egan-Riley, Ake, Mbete, Fernandinho, Gundogan, McAtee, Grealish, Sterling.
I can envisage few changes for this one; with our manager hoping those involved last Wednesday, should they have re-filled their tanks by then, will want to use this match to get some frustration out of their collective systems…
So, on this occasion, I’m simply going to say that apart from no Kyle Walker and with Oleksandr Zinchenko coming in (it could be Nathan Ake instead), it’s the same 11 that started 4 days earlier.
Zack is the reserve keeper; Conrad, Nathan & Luke are the back-up defenders on the side. Fernandinho, Ilkay, James, Jack & Raheem make up the midfielders / wingers / attackers in ‘the 9’.
I was gonna include Cole Palmer on the bench but I think we lose an attacking midfielder in the subs tomorrow because of the need to have the defensive cover of both Conrad Egan-Riley & Luke Mbete…and our manager seems to be picking James McAtee over Cole recently, for one reason or another.
Notable absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.
- Kyle Walker – Presumably still injured having aggravated a previously-twisted ankle.
- John Stones – Presumably still out injured with a muscular issue; possible a thigh injury, one report suggests this morning.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? I’m going to start this section similar to how I started my last league, pre-match blog-posting, which is to state what a massive turn-around their now not-so-new manager has achieved since he arrived on 8th November 2021. The Magpies just couldn’t find a way to win, most of the time early on in the season, and the richest club in the universe was going rapidly down the sink hole.
Championship football, even at that early stage in the season, was looking a very real possibility.
Now…I WAS going to then go on about what good form our visitors are in – and they are for the most part – and how this is going to be another big test for us, which I think it may well be. Certainly, their ‘last 5’ form of, W W W W L looks impressive, especially when you point out that the only defeat in that time was to Liverpool and by just 0-1. But then I looked into who they’d beaten in those 4 games and by how many and discovered that they were:
- Newcastle United 1-0 out of form Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Newcastle United 2-1 inconsistent Leicester City
- Newcastle United 1-0 12th-place (as I prep this piece) Crystal Palace
- Relegated Norwich City 0-3 Newcastle United
I then took a quick look back slightly further to discover that they got thumped 5-1 away at Spurs just before that 5-game run…and that walloping came after two 1-0 away defeats to both lowly Everton & Chelsea. All of a sudden, I was looking at a side who’d won 4 and lost 4 of an 8-game spell and sit 10th (again, as I’m typing this) just 11 points above the ‘drop zone’.
As some have been raising their eyebrows in surprise when they look at some of their positive results and position in the table; have Newcastle possibly flattered to deceive a little?
Perhaps…but I do take on board also what pundits have said who have watched Eddie Howe’s men, where as I haven’t, and understand from their observations that we’re going to face a highly organised and motivated side who have attacking midfield / wing players who love to drive at the opposition at pace and cause opposing defenders, who aren’t quite ‘on their toes’, issues.
Other than the thumping they received at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, they don’t tend to concede too many either, under their ex-Bournemouth manager.
Our visitors welcome back long-term injury pair Kieran Trippier & Callum Wilson who both resumed training this week following lengthy injury issues. I can’t see either of them starting tomorrow though.
Apart from Newcastle’s injury update; the rest of that, in this section, I typed before we’d even kicked a ball in Madrid and it now worries me a little that we go into this fixture, yes having had a near-4 day break between games, tired and, perhaps, a little deflated; after a machine gun volley of 3 Real Madrid goals in just 5 minutes that completely floored us last Wednesday; after being the better side for most of the match too.
How will we react?
Pep, in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, looked understandably as [still] shock as most, if not all, City fans felt at that time about our 5-minute ‘hammer blow’ that knocked us out of the Champions League. But as the questioning continued; this was followed by a clear-steely-resolve to-now ‘push on’ and get his players to reset & refocus on the job in hand.
Speaking of which, he was asked how his players felt following that jolt in Spain and he admitted that he’d not spoken to them since; explaining that they needed a good rest and that training would only resume on Saturday. Time for them to reflect but not necessarily brood too, I would suggest. This is the time [when they first meet up again] he will assess the mindset of the players but he seemed confident that he knew his squad was capable of taking that hurt and using it to good affect; whilst at the same time testing his own ‘man management’ skills once more.
It's often said that the first 15 / 20 minutes of certain games can be important and I think that’s the case here for us tomorrow afternoon. That’s the time we’ll how the players might be feeling following Wednesday night. I’m not saying for one second that if we start badly then we won’t shake it off and finish the game well; I just think that opening stage will act as a kind of temperature guage.
It's taken some time but I’ve just about shaken off our midweek result and I honestly believe, especially after Pep meets up with his players once more, that come 4:30pm (BST) on Sunday our players will do too; using that pain to re-focus and target the black & white stripes that stand in front of them.
It’s a City win from me.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions
during the game: Dry, warm (17C) and largely overcast with a chance that the sun might pop out for a visit at some stage. Even the breeze, which will be coming from a southerly direction, should be nice & warm.
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| Solidarity |
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