With VERY little time due to other commitments, it’s straight to it. I very-nearly didn’t get the chance to do a pre-match piece at all until I then woke up at ‘stupid O’clock’ this morning.
I intend to get a blog-posting out tomorrow too, looking at all of our summer incoming & outgoing players & prices etc.
v Fulham
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Haaland____________________
Grealish___________________________________Silva
_____________________________Foden____________
___________Kovacic_____________________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gvardiol__________________________________Walker
____________Ake________________Dias____________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Phillips, Nunes, Bobb, Doku, Alvarez.
Ederson is ‘between the sticks’.
With one defender still out and another just coming back from a brief illness, I think we’ll see a back 4 of Josko, Nathan, Ruben & Kyle, as per our last game. In fact, I think we’ll only see one change from our last outing…
Rodders to position himself the deepest of our midfielders, apart from when he might fancy another pop at our opponent’s goal, of course; Jack, Mateo, Phil & Barnardo provide more of the creative, attacking threat ahead of the Spaniard.
Erling to ‘go again’ up front.
There’s a bit of a doubt about who might make the bench but here goes…
Stefen is a cert to be our back-up stopper; likewise Sergio & Rico as defensive replacement options. Manuel has now recovered from his gastric issues and so, I’m guessing, will be strong enough for a place on the bench as opposed to being a starter. Kalvin, possibly latest signing, Matheus, but doubtful, Oscar & recent-signing, Jeremy make up the midfielders / wingers on the side, while Julian steps back, I recon, as a striker replacement option for this one.
Notable absences:
- John Stones – Out with a muscular issue and is expected to return following the up & coming international break. Apparently, he’s making good progress and is close to a return already.
- Kevin De Bruyne – Recovering from a torn hamstring / surgery. Expected return around December / January.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? For the same time constraint reasons, I’m going to keep it fairly brief. However, I would like to remind City fans that despite our 71% possession, it took a 95th-minute Haaland penalty for us to squeeze past Fulham 2-1 the last time The Cottagers visited ‘our gaff’. We did go down to 10 men after just 26 minutes when Joao Cancelo was ‘red carded’ but still; the London side have shown that they can ‘rock up’ to the Etihad and show a lot of resistance.
Having said all of that, I think we’ve added a certain steeliness and patience to our other skills & attributes and keeping this one short, I’m going for a City win.
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: Lovely for a change. 70F, dry, sunny intervals and no breeze whatsoever should make for a very, pleasantly-warm afternoon indeed. It’s likely to feel even hotter on the pitch so any players who aren’t quite 100% might start to struggle as the second half minutes tick by – we could see nearly a full quota of subs from both sides this afternoon, depending on how the game is flowing and what the scoreline is.
Solidarity
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