Another victory and crackin’ scoreline in midweek – let’s see what Saturday brings with our third, back-to-back home fixture in seven days.
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).
Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (possibly 2-7-1 at times):
____________________Haaland___________________
Grealish__________________________________Foden
_____________________________De Bruyne________
____________Silva______________________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gomez__________________________________Cancelo
___________Laporte_____________Dias_____________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Ortega, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand, Akanji, Ake, Gundogan, Palmer, Mahrez & Alvarez.
Ederson continues in his role as custodian of our goal.
More ‘chopping & changing’ / rotation with our central, back-2 pairing? That’s very possible these days, of course! However, I’ve just got a feeling that our manager might want to give both Nathan & Manuel a run-out together in the Champions League away at F.C. Copenhagen in midweek and, therefore, Aymeric & Ruben get another starting game together. Sergio, who is likely to be seeing a lot of match-minutes over the coming weeks, and Joao flank the Spanish & Portuguese internationals.
Rodders to return after his recent dead-leg-knock as defensive midfielder, I reckon, and ahead of the Spanish international is a likely attacking quartet of in-form Jack, Bernardo, Kevin & Phil; all in support of Erling ‘up top’.
Stefan is the reserve stopper; Rico, Josh, Manuel & Nathan provide defensive cover in ‘the 9’. Ilkay, Cole & Riyad are the midfield / wing options on the side, while Julian is the back-up striker waiting for his chance.
Notable absences:
- Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.
- John Stones – Has a hamstring injury and going off the initial assessment / timescale issued, he could be out for another week, possibly more.
- Kyle Walker – Out with an abdominal injury, we were first told, which has now-since been reported as a groin issue, for which he’s already had surgery on. Regardless of the specific area of his body that might be the issue, there’s no return date given, as yet. However, with some reports suggesting that we're unlikely to be seeing Kyle this calendar year, Pep then said on Friday in his pre-match press conference that it could be a few weeks. Either way, it sounds like it could be some considerable time. So, we City fans might not see the England right-wing back until after the World Cup and at this stage also, just like Kalvin Phillips, there’s a chance that he may not travel to Qatar with his international colleagues next month. Fingers crossed for him all round, of course.
- Kalvin Phillips – Out, for us at least, until after the World Cup while he recovers from a shoulder injury / surgery.
What is it with our English defensive players at the moment?!
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result? Southampton - one of last season’s ‘stone in our shoe’ both at home and away; sharing the points in both fixtures. However, it’s not going too well for ‘em this season so far and if I heard correctly and ‘memory serves’, they were booed off the pitch by their own supporters following a 1-2 home defeat to a resurgent Everton side last weekend. They sit 16th and just 1 point above the ‘drop zone’ as I prep this piece early on Friday morning.
In that match against the blues of Merseyside, today’s visitors practically shared equal possession, with 54% against Everton’s 46%. However, whereas The Toffees had 5 shots on target from 12, The Saints managed just 6 on target from a whopping 22 attempts. When you then look at the table and see that they’ve managed just 8 goals in 8 league games, I think therein lies their main problem.
I get the feeling, without knowing for sure of course, that they’re still a hard-working, organised bunch and although leaking 13 goals from those same 8 matches doesn’t sound great; their “Against” column doesn’t stand out as being particularly terrible in comparison to a lot of other teams in the division. That work rate is something we’re going to have to at least match this afternoon - these could prove to be far more stubborn than our last two opponents.
Take these lightly and we could suffer the same result as the last time we faced ‘em. We’re also facing a side who have FOUR of our ex-players as well as our ex-youth scout, although one of those players, Romeo Lavia, isn’t expected to return from a muscular injury until later in the month; while left-back, Juan Larios, is a doubt after suffering a knock. The other two - Irish international keeper Gavin Bazunu & England Under-20 international Samuel Edozie - could face their old side at the Etihad Stadium; although the 19-year-old winger has only managed 51 minutes of play over 3 league matches so far.
Attitude is the key – go out there all ’Billy Big Biscuits’ having ‘put to the sword’ two sides 6-3 & 5-0 and we put ourselves in a position of coming unstuck and potentially losing ground on league leaders, Arsenal. Go into the match with the frame of mind that we’ll need to earn our victory and I have little doubt that we’ll get the desired result.
We might get & need a little ‘slap in the face’ early on in the game with a warning shot from our south coast guests (hopefully it’s no more than that, of course) but I’m going for us to grab all-3 points in the end. It’s a City win for me.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Draw
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Decent. I’d still take a jacket, Blues fans, but 15C, dry, sunny intervals with a light, westerly breeze is not bad at all for early-to-mid October in the north-west of England.
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| Solidarity |
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