A few tweaks for the Villa clash?

I think we might see that ahead of our Tuesday night game in Europe…

v Aston Villa

Villa Park

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

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

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (possibly 2-7-1 at times):

____________________Alvarez____________________

 

 

Foden___________________________________Mahrez

_____________________________De Bruyne_________

__________Gundogan____________________________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Cancelo__________________________________Walker

____________Dias______________Stones___________

 

 

____________________Ederson_____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Silva, Grealish, Palmer, Haaland.

Ederson keeps his spot in goal.

Same back-4 from our last outing, I reckon, which consists of Joao, Ruben, John & Kyle.

Rodders is, once again, the defensive midfielder and ahead of him could be two ‘go agains’ and two incomings [from our last outing]; in the form of Phil, Ilkay, Kevin & Riyad.

No Erling in the starting line-up? I think that might be the case and despite his terrific ‘return’ so far; with Julian perhaps given a go ‘up top’ and in the middle of our attack. That’d be the ‘Pep thing’ to do, I think, wouldn’t it?

Stefan continues to be the back-up stopper on the side; Sergio, Rico, new-signing Manuel & a returning [from injury] Nathan providing the defensive replacement options in ‘the 9’. Bernardo, a-returning [also from injury] Jack & Cole are the midfield / wing players on the side; with Erling our reserve striker waiting to come on, should he be needed. Both Nathan & Jack only returned to training recently so I’m guessing they’re at a stage where they’re ‘bench ready’, at least.

Notable absences:

-       Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.

-       Aymeric Laporte – Recovering from a knee injury / surgery. Expected return is now more likely to be early October rather than the possibility of a late September return, as was stated quite recently. With our last game being on 12^th November before the World Cup break and with the time it takes to get match fitness back plus minor niggles that can often follow such a long layoff; I don’t think we’re going to see much of Aymeric this side of Christmas. Additionally, should he make his country’s World Cup squad, I hope they flippin’ well look after him following his recovery.

-       Kalvin Phillips – Sounds like he’s back in training to some extent but not-quite-yet with his teammates. He misses this one but is slowly working his way back at least, fingers crossed. Pep also informed us that Kalvin’s most-recent set back was a dislocated shoulder which, he said, keeps wanting to ‘pop out’. From personal experience – and despite taking into account the fact that he will have stronger muscles surrounding the joint than I have – that’s not a good injury to have in terms of reoccurrence; plus, it-possibly playing on the mind of a player when he goes into challenges and / or ‘goes to ground’. 🤞

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

With the up & coming Champion’s League game on Tuesday night? Yeah, I’d go with that for this one.

If I’m right – and it is somewhat bold of me to suggest both dropping Haaland and putting Mahrez in from the start when we have far better players in better form that can play on the right - I expect lots of substitutes early on in the second half…depending on how the game is progressing, of course.

Result? Villa really have had a dire start to their 2022-23 campaign. Words from reporters who watched their opening away fixture at Bournemouth still echo in my head, somewhat, about how poor they really were that day…and I don’t think performances have improved much since.

Results certainly haven’t - they’ve played 5 and lost 4; scoring just 4 and conceding 9 in that time. Excluding a victory in the League Cup against lower-league opposition, their only victory this season so far was a narrow 2-1 home win over fellow strugglers, Everton. At least the home side managed to score all-3 goals that day, including an own goal to set the nerves jangling on 87 minutes…

I’m certainly not being complacent here – and I sure hope the players selected aren’t going to be either – and our hosts do carry threats. He’s not the only attacking concern we should be wary of but I think Ollie Watkins is particularly dangerous should he manage to elude our defences.

But I think it would take an exceptional performance from the home side plus a very bad day at the office for us OR some flippin’ bad luck for us / good fortune for them for this to be anything other than an away win. It’s 3 points to City for me.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

For a reason that I can’t recall / wasn’t noted in detail other than being busy; there was no pre-match blog-posting for that fixture.

Expected weather conditions during the game: Dry and really quite warm (21C / 70F) for an early September evening. There will be a fairly brisk southerly breeze but that just seems to be dragging up ‘the warm stuff’ for the 5:30pm (BST) KO. Lovely evening for all – both for those playin’ and watchin’.

Solidarity