Plenty of personnel changes predicted v Young Boys

Still an important game, of course, but with our position in Group G after 3 matches played being as it is, I would say that this-coming Sunday is even more important than Tuesday night’s fixture.

v Young Boys

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 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-2-4-1):

____________________Alvarez____________________

 

 

Grealish___________________________________Bobb

______________________________Foden___________

___________Nunes______________________________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Gvardiol__________________________________Lewis

____________Dias_______________Stones__________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Carson, Ortega, Gomez, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Phillips, Kovacic, Silva, Doku & Haaland.

With genuine respect to our visitors, I can envisage quite a number of changes from our last starting 11 and ahead of our visit to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon; that’s despite still needing one more win to secure progression to the knock-out stages. I could be well wrong, of course, with this fairly bold suggestion.

Ederson continues in net but with a side note that I think we might see Stefan Ortega being given a start or two in our remaining group stage games should we win our match against the Swiss side.

An almost completely different back-4 (occasional 3) to that of last Saturday, with Josko, Ruben & Rico all joining ‘go again’ John.

Rodders is almost certain to start but, if so, could find himself withdrawn / rested / protected at some point in the second half. Similar to the defence and ahead of the Spaniard, I’m going for a lot of changes and some audacious ones too. With Mateo Kovacic being given a chance last weekend to show what he’s got and why we bought him; I’m going for our manager give the same opportunity to Matheus tonight. Phil is back in the starting line-up; likewise Jack on the left and the boldest of bold suggestions is that our manager will give a start on the right to 20-year-old, Oscar.

At Pep’s pre-match press conference, his side had another training session to assess Erling Haaland and although he said the player himself felt better [with his twisted ankle]; no final decision could be made at that time. Even if he makes it at all, I’m going for Julian to start up front this evening.

Two stoppers on the bench in the form of Scott & Stefan; Sergio, Kyle, Manuel & Nathan are the defenders in the 11 subs from an-allowed 12. Kalvin, Mateo, Bernardo & Jeremy are the midfielders / wingers on the side, while Erling is likely to provide striker cover should he make it at all.

If I’m right, that’s 7 players in the starting 11 who didn’t start in our match 3-days earlier.

Notable absences:

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Continues to train alone whilst being assessed by physios after each & every session. December / January hopes of a return could be closer to November / December after some promising reports.

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

Yep.

Result? We saw, in the reverse fixture recently, that our visitors have it in them to hit us and it was a fine finish to level at 1-1 on 52-minutes. I also understand that they scored a cracker in a win at the weekend, which keeps them top of the table by a point with a game in hand. In our previous encounter, it then took a 67-minute penalty and another goal 4-minutes from time to secure a 1-3 win.

We definitely need to be on our toes tonight, for sure.

However, we did manage 68% possession away from home on a surface that we’re not used to and, in that time, managed an impressive 26 shots in anger. As I say, we definitely need to be ‘on it’ in the cold, Manchester drizzle tonight and if we apply ourselves like we did at the weekend, then I can see another home win for us. That’s what I’m going for – City to progress to the knock-out stages with a win tonight.

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

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: I think I may have already given the game away but would it surprise you to hear that it’s gonna be damp? Practically the same forecast as the one for last Saturday afternoon’s game; only it’s going to be dark too, this time of course. Drizzly / dank atmosphere with a temperature of around 8C, which is likely to feel considerably cooler, I would expect.

Solidarity