Predictions v Fulham

Back to league action and a return to the starting 11 for our more-regular players.

v Fulham

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 (possible 3-6-1 at times):

____________________Haaland____________________

           

 

Foden______________________________________Silva

 

_________Gundogan___________De Bruyne_________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Ake_____________________________________Cancelo

__________Stones_______________Akanji___________

 

 

____________________Ederson_____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Dias, Laporte, Grealish, Palmer, Mahrez, Alvarez.

Ederson reclaims the gloves in this league fixture.

It’s always tough predicting our defensive line-up these days and, so, I’m simply going to go with ‘rotation’…plus the fact that I don’t think Pep would have been too happy with his defenders leaving Sevilla’s tallest threat unmarked from a corner for their goal last Wednesday. He recently admitted in one of his press conferences that those sort of defensive mistakes irks him somewhat. Therefore, I’m going with Nathan, John, Manuel & Joao in a 4-come-3 system; with Cancelo occasionally joining in the attack either on the right wing or ‘tucked in’ midfield in the “inverted wing-back” role.

Rodders will be our deepest-lying midfielder, leaving the majority of the attacking / creative work to Phil, Ilkay, Kevin & Bernardo, would be my guess for this afternoon (3:00pm KO GMT).

There was to be a further training session and assessment following Pep’s pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, as is ‘the norm’, but I’m going to stick my neck out and say that Erling steps back in as our striker ‘up top’ following both illness and bruised tendons in one of his feet. Apparently, and according to those press officers who were allowed in to watch training on Thursday, the big man looked sharp.

Stefan returns to the bench as reserve keeper; Sergio, Rico, Ruben & Aymeric make up the defensive replacement options in ‘the 9’. Jack, Cole & Riyad are the midfielders / wingers on the side, while Julian stands by as the back-up striker.

Notable absences:

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

-       Kyle Walker – Still out for an unspecified period of time following surgery on his groin. We were last told a few days to a week ago that the club Doctors & Physios were impressed with Kyle’s improvement but he was still a little behind Kalvin Phillips with regards to the speed of his progress / recovery and return date.

-       Kalvin Phillips – Out for us until after the World Cup while he recovers from a shoulder injury / surgery. Last we heard he was in partial training with the squad but there was still no ‘contact work’ for the England midfielder.

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

Definitely. It’s a strong side that has a lot of our ‘A Team’ players in it and, in my humble opinion, it could be improved still-further; with Barnardo Silva occupying Ilkay Gundogan’s position and with Julian Alvarez coming in on the right-attacking flank…and that’s nothing whatsoever against the German international.

But yeah, that’s good for me.

Result? STATS ALERT!

Sorry if you don’t like ‘em...

Fulham are very decent side – only 6 sides above them have lost fewer games than The Cottagers and only 5 teams have scored more in the league. They’re also unbeaten in their last 4 outings with 2 wins and 2 draws and they currently occupy the Europa Conference League place.

However, they do leak plenty too, having only kept 3 clean sheets in 14 games in all competitions; holding the joint-3^rd worst defence in the league. Obviously that’s something they will have been working on hard to rectify but if they’ve not managed to find a solution as yet; then-obviously-also that’s something we can most-definitely exploit.

It’s still unsettles me a little to see so much chopping & changing with our back line and for days now I’ve not been able to shake a feeling that our West London visitors will breach our defence this afternoon. It’s not just Aleksandar Mitrovic that we have to be mindful of, that would be disrespectful to other Fulham players, but he is certainly their main threat similar to how Rafa Mir was last Wednesday night.

However, I’ve had a more positive vibe too in that we’ll bang a few goals in today and so for me, it’s a home win.

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

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: It will have been raining lightly most of the morning, which will simply leave the pitch nice ‘n’ slick for some quick-passing, nothing more. As for the fans – as well as bonfire night revellers - the good news is that it’s forecasted to dry up in the region from around 3, possibly closer to 4:00pm. It remains mostly cloudy during the game with a ‘not too bad’ temperature of 12C; accompanied by a light, south-westerly breeze. Definitely coat weather for the spectators on a damp-feeling day and a nice hot pie would probably go down well too.

Solidarity