Who am I to suggest that the injury…

…reports that are coming through ‘thick ‘n’ fast’ at the moment are all, or mostly, just a bunch of hooey?

Let’s say they’re all true – let’s, then, look at how we might set up against Liverpool on Saturday 25^th November if we do-indeed have 7 players out and they don’t recover in time.

First of all, those injured players…

Ederson                       -           Foot                 -           Being assessed

John Stones                -           Muscular         -           Being assessed

Nathan Ake                 -           Knock              -           Being assessed

Sergio Gomez             -           Ankle               -           Being assessed

Kevin De Bruyne        -           Hamstring       -           Possible return December / January

Mateo Kovacic            -           Muscular         -           Being assessed

Matheus Nunes           -           Muscular         -           Being assessed

And just for your information while I’m on the topic of injuries, Zack Steffen had knee surgery a good number of months ago and was the reason he didn’t get his summer transfer out of the club, while Kayky was returned to us from his loan club following one of those nasty anterior cruciate ligament injuries and is likely to be out all season. Good luck to the lad.

SO…

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1:

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Grealish_____________Foden_________________Doku

 

_____________________Silva______________________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Gvardiol__________________________________Walker

_____________Dias______________Akanji___________

 

 

____________________Ortega______________________

Subs: Carson, Lewis, Phillips, Bobb & Alvarez.

Stefan, of course, is the automatic choice to step in for our Brazilian stopper and he would no doubt want to take the opportunity to make a point about why he joined us in the summer of 2022, which wasn’t to be permanent, second-choice keeper.

We still have a very strong-looking back line, I would say, and that’s despite three reported injuries in that department alone. Josko, Ruben, Manuel & Kyle area the 4 in there.

Rodders (🤞 he doesn’t get injured too!) to roam in front of those, while I would suggest a dual defensive & attacking role for Bernardo behind an attacking trio of Jack, Phil & Jeremy.

Erling ‘up front’.

38-year-old Scott gets promoted to the bench for a Premier League fixture as reserve keeper and then, possible EDS players aside, we’d have just 4 outfield players as backup. Rico would be the only defender on the side; Kalvin the only midfielder while Oscar & Julian are the only attackers in the 5 from a possible 9.

There you have it, fellow Blues – a team good enough to get something out of our home clash with the Merseyside reds? I find myself saying, yes.

Of course, if there were to be a number of in-game injuries to a few of those starting-11 players then that could paint a very different picture. However, despite injuries to, I would say, four (from those seven) players who can truly class themselves as ‘first-team starters’, that’s a flippin’ good line-up and some serious talent & experience on the bench too; albeit short on numbers in today’s game.

Thanks for taking the time to click on and read! 👍