A couple of added midfield injuries / doubts for this game and when I look at my predicted bench so early on in the season and in a Premier League fixture no less; I think it highlights already just how thin our squad is, for now at least, when compared to previous seasons under Pep.
Imagine, therefore, if we lost Bernardo Silva in the coming days / weeks and didn’t replace him with similar quality by 1st September?! It doesn’t bare thinking of for me, so moving on swiftly…
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| Etihad 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 (possibly 2-7-1 at times):
____________________Haaland____________________
Foden____________________________________Mahrez
_____________________________De Bruyne_________
_________Gundogan______________________________
_____________________Rodri______________________
Cancelo___________________________________Walker
_____________Ake______________Dias______________
____________________Ederson_____________________
Subs: Ortega, Wilson-Esbrand, Lewis, Stones, Silva, Knight, Grealish, Kayky, Alvarez.
Ederson continues in net.
Same back-4 as last Sunday, I reckon; that being Joao, Nathan, Ruben & Kyle. Well…I SAY “back-4” – it took some time staring at the pitch, in our last game, for me to work out what the formation was / where our wing-backs were and as the game developed; I found it to be more of a 2-7-1 a lot of the time; as we completely dominated the vast majority of the game. Depending on how our opponents set up today, we could see that deployed by Pep once again; after he admitted yesterday that it’s a tactic he’s used in the past against certain opposition when using a ‘number 9’ in his team.
Rodders to ‘sit deepest’ in midfield and ahead of him, I think we’ll see one ‘little tweak’ and one reward for a player who stepped into ‘the 11’ last Sunday. The adjustment comes in the form of Riyad in for Jack, with Phil moving over to the left flank. Kevin keeps his place and I think we’ll see Ilkay rewarded for a very good, 78-minute outing last weekend.
Erling to start once again and will be rubbing his hands in anticipation, I’m sure; hoping to add to his 2-goal league tally.
Stefan is the back-up keeper; Luke, Rico & John make up the defenders on the side. Bernardo, Ben, Jack & Kayky are the midfielders / wingers waiting to come on in ‘the 9’; Julian is the replacement striker in reserve.
Now…I could be wrong about Bernardo Silva starting on the bench once again – we could see him in ‘the 11’ instead of Riyad, Kevin OR Ilkay. I’m sure we all know about the links with and speculation regarding skint / borrowing Barca and although, generally speaking, Pep picks players according to the game in hand / who the oppo are; he has been known to pull a player back a little who has, possibly in this case we don’t know, expressed at least some desire to move on.
I don’t want to ‘bang on about this’ too much and more than I have already in a pre-match blog posting but I’d really like to know what Bernardo himself meant in one of his lines when he recently opened up in an interview about the speculation. He said, “My relationship with the club is very honest", adding, “I’ve been open with them and they know what I want”. What does he want, I wonder?
· More money?
· It surely can’t be more ‘game time’, could it?
· Insisting on-being played in a certain position? Surely that would spell the end of his relationship with his manager.
· Or…how about this – possibly saying that he will give us one more season of his very best as long as we agree to sell him in the summer of 2023 to the mighty Barcelona.
Anyway, that’s enough of that…
Notable absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.
- Aymeric Laporte – Recovering from a knee injury / surgery. Expected return sometime in September.
- Cole Palmer – Quite possibly out following a knock he received to his…feet (Pep might have meant foot, I dunno). Not sure if that occurred in training in midweek or whether I missed something in our last outing; when the 20-year-old appeared for the final 6 minutes of the game (injury time included). Doesn’t sound like a long-term injury - it’s possibly precautionary following last season’s long-term absence due to a foot injury. I hope so anyway – I hope this latest knock hasn’t aggravated / inflamed his last injury that the club were once considering surgery for…
- Kalvin Phillips – It was also reported in our manager’s pre-match press conference that Kalvin Phillips has…”niggles” (the Spaniard seems to love that word); so much so that he will definitely miss this afternoon’s game, apparently.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? Our south-coast visitors got a crackin’ result in their first game back in the Premier League following promotion last season. A lot of reporters did appear to spend more time slating their visiting opponents, Aston Villa, for having a terrible game but still; that’s a good start for a side who…even their manager appeared concerned about with regards to the lack of summer recruitment.
And I’m sure they’ll put up a good fight today too – Scott Parker usually sends out an organised, hard-working side regardless of the “quality aspect”.
However, having said all of those nice things about The Cherries, this is a City win for me and once we slip into a higher gear and eventually grind Bournemouth down; I can see this one possibly being a high-scoring one for us too.
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
In other news…
We’ve all but signed Spanish Under-21 left-wing back / winger Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht; a player Pep has said will stay with the squad [rather than being loaned out] and compete for a place on the left, defensive flank with Joao Cancelo & Josh Wilson-Esbrand.
I might do a little piece on the lad next week and once the signing has been confirmed but from what I’ve both seen and read about him over the last couple of weeks, he’d be a good attacking left-wing option for us too and certainly adds more competition for that attacking position…
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| Solidarity |
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