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