Home banker?

v Sheffield United

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 / 4-2-3-1 (occasional 3-6-1):

At least two doubts and one possible surprise here…

____________________Alvarez____________________

 

 

Grealish___________________________________Silva

_____________________________Foden____________

___________Kovacic_____________________________

 

____________________­_Rodri_____________________

Gvardiol__________________________________Walker

_____________Ake_____________Akanji____________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Dias, Phillips, De Bruyne, Nunes, Bobb & Hamilton.

Ederson ‘between the sticks’.

I believe we’ll see a back-4 come 3 of Josko, Nathan, Manuel & Kyle.

Rodders just in front of those.

Now, having had his family terrorised in a house break-in while he was playing at Goodison Park last Wednesday night, Jack might not be in the right frame of mind to take part in today’s game. Pep wasn’t sure but did inform us that the England international did not train yesterday. I’ve put him in there but, of course, he is my doubt number-1. If Jack does start, I think we’ll see Mateo, Phil & Bernardo joining him in our attacking midfield department.

Julian ‘up top’.

Stefan is reserve stopper; Sergio, Rico & Ruben are the defenders on the side. However, Ruben is my doubt number-2 because he has been ill recently and not one journalist asked our manager how he was. Kalvin, Kevin & Matheus could be 3 midfielders waiting for a chance to come on, while Oscar & Micah are the wingers / forwards in ‘the 9’.

Yes, possibly Kevin De Bruyne in the match-day squad this afternoon! He continues to train with his teammates and we were informed in yesterday’s pre-match press conference that Kev is the closest of the currently-injured players to a return. In fact, Pep was going to take one final look at the 32-year-old midfielder in Friday afternoon’s training session before deciding whether or not to-possibly including him in today’s squad.

Notable absences:

-       John Stones – Out for up to 2 weeks with an ankle injury.

-       Jeremy Doku – Still out injured with a knock / muscular issue. In yesterday’s ‘presser’, it actually sounded like the Belgian winger isn’t even training at the moment but I’m not too sure. This injury issue does seem to be taking a little longer to solve than I-personally expected and I hope it’s not more serious than it originally sounded. 🤞  In fairness, Pep did say that because of the explosive nature of the way Jeremy plays, they have to be a little more careful to make sure the muscle as fully recovered before they risk playing the 21-year-old.

-       Erling Haaland – Pep informed us in his post-match press conference on Wednesday night that Erling was getting better but was still in some pain and is currently training alone. This game, therefore, definitely comes too soon for the Norwegian international and only time will tell whether he’ll be ready for Huddersfield Town (7^th Jan), Newcastle United (13^th Jan) or Burnley (31^st Jan).

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

Yep.

Result? Our visitors do appear a little more ‘battle hardened’ since their recent change in manager but surely this is a case of, “by how many…”.

They are going to be without our on-loan player, James McAtee, who is ineligible to play and that will be a big blow to The Blades. I can only see a home win outcome, if you’ll excuse my frankness. Anything else would be both a shock and a travesty.

3-points to City.

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

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Damp, as-has been the theme recently. Rain the day before and, once again, in the build up to this afternoon’s game will ensure a ‘zippy pitch’ for sure and there is a fairly strong, southerly breeze too. Thankfully, for the match but not for fans making their way home, the ‘heavier stuff’ isn’t forecasted to fall until just after the match. 10C is the predicted temperature but I can imagine it feeling a little cooler than that sat in the stands…

Solidarity

 

Forced into a corner, ‘tails up’ and then a resurgence.

That’s what we’re facing tonight (as late as flippin’ 8:15pm GMT 😡)…plus a side who, like so many other teams, may raise their game even more when-facing the three-times-in-a-row Champions of England…and now Champions of the World too.

Like many other City fans of late, I have questioned some of the qualities of this current side as we’ve stuttered and stumbled a little domestically but Pep has ALWAYS defended the character of his players regardless.

This game will test that character in more ways than one…

v Everton – ‘Game-number 1’ in the first chapter of our new book…

Goodison Park - perhaps our last ever visit?

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was our home fixture against Crystal Palace: 10/11).

With no pre-match press conference ahead of this fixture, there’s a little more guess work than usual about who may and may not be available…

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

____________________Alvarez____________________

 

 

Grealish___________________________________Silva

_____________________________Foden____________

___________Kovacic_____________________________

 

____________________­_Rodri_____________________

Ake______________________________________Walker

_____________Dias_____________Stones___________

 

 

____________________Ederson____________________

Subs: Carson, Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Gvardiol, Phillips, Nunes & Bobb.

Ederson continues in goal.

With the exception of Nathan Ake, I think there have been some fluctuating / inconsistent performances from most of our defenders in recent weeks, so there could well be a lot going on in our manager’s head when he considers his personnel for this department. My best supposition is that we’ll see Nathan, Ruben, John & Kyle in the starting 11.

There was a collective intake of breath from City fans all around the world when Rodders was crunched into 5-days ago which, if rumours are to be believed, was SO strong that it affected all four of Earth’s main jet streams! The player himself said that shortly after the heavy challenge towards the end of the Club World Cup final, he almost cried. He clearly felt he’d received some damage to his knee. Thankfully, a scare was all that it was and although there must have been some knee-joint pain, it sounds like our Spanish defensive midfielder will be okay to start tonight. 🤞

Ahead of the 27-year-old, I’m going for Jack, Mateo, Phil & Bernardo.

Julian continues to be our furthest forward player.

Unless more of our outfield players are fit to be part of the match-day squad, I think we’ll see two keepers on the bench in the form of Scott & Stefan and four defenders in the form of Sergio, Rico, Manuel & Josko. Kalvin, Matheus & Oscar make up ‘the 9’ as two midfielders and a winger / forward.

I wonder if this will be the penultimate occasion that we’ll see both Sergio Gomez & Kalvin Phillips “involved” in the match-day squad?

Rumours are increasing, of course as we’re only days away from the start of the January transfer window, that both are ‘wanted men’. Zack Steffen too, who had knee surgery several months ago, is another player who could be heading for the exit door.

Notable absences:

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Back in training with his teammates to continue his progression towards his long-awaited comeback from a bad hamstring injury; for which he had surgery for. Not expected to be ready to be part of a match-day squad just yet.

-       Jeremy Doku – Back in training following his knock / muscular issue and he could make the bench.

-       Erling Haaland – Has been out with a stressed bone in his foot, for which he has seen a specialist. Other than that; for Erling, read Jeremy.

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

As long as we see Ruben ‘up his game’; as long as we get a performance from Kyle that we know is within him, as long as we get at least a 7/10’er from Mateo and likewise Jack then, yeah…I’m happy with that. 😁

Result? I’ve used the word resurgence to describe Everton in recent weeks and I believe that’s definitely the case. I did write those words the following day after their 0-2 away win at Burnley way back on Saturday 16^th December and, since then, they’ve not won their last 2 fixtures.

However, they did hold Fulham to a 1-1 draw at home in the Quarter Final of the League Cup and only lost the match 6-7 on penalties. I then listened to some of their away match at Spurs last Saturday and even though they lost 2-1, it was a very bullish display by The Toffees who had more shots and ‘shots on target’ than the home side too.

They are a very much changed side to the one that was struggling at the start of the season and since their 10-point deduction for financial breaches, they’ve accumulated an impressive 12-points from a possible 18.

They have, as I say, not won their last 2 games and that could send their players one way or another. I’m sure they’ll want to get back on track to the time when they’d turned their fortunes around and we could be facing a very front-footed, aggressive home side. On the other hand, when you’re ‘down there’ and things don’t quite go your way, doubt can sometimes start to creep into your game.

As for us, yes we’re the current club Champions of the World and we’ve picked up 5 (FIVE!) major trophies in one calendar year…but our current league form in our last 10 matches looks like this: L W W W D D D L W D.

Some of those games where we’ve failed to collect all-3 points we’ve not played too badly but we have, instead, largely gifted the opposition points with sloppy play and dodgy defending. In those same 10 games, we’ve shipped in 15 goals and only kept 1 clean sheet.

Things definitely have to change with regards to that and what better time to start it than with ‘Game-number 1’ in the first chapter of our new book.

Mindset, focus, determination. If we get that right tonight then we should win this one but having had a bruising encounter in Saudi Arabia last Friday night, this one too could come with a few robust challenges.

Will we continue the ‘Christmas spirit’ and gift our hosts a goal? I think that’s highly likely, yes. So it’s up to the more-advanced personnel to nullify that with 2 or 3 of our own.

This one will be a test in more ways than one but I’m going for us to come out of it victorious. City to make it 8-straight Goodison Park wins in all competitions.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Won…largely thanks to a masterclass performance from a certain Ilkay Gundogan; who got 2 goals and an assist in a 0-3 win that day.

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: After having been rained on for most of the day, I expect the pitch to be a little heavy. The rain may ease in the hours leading to kick-off but it could well return for the start of the match. It’s windy too, with an average speed of around 18MPH and we could see gusts as high as 45+MPH towards the end of the game. Be careful on the journey home, City & Everton fans. It’s a far cry from the conditions our players experienced in Saudi Arabia and, for me, only adds to this tricky-looking fixture.

Solidarity