…while we’re conceding so many goals? Oh yeah, a trip to a side who have played 6-league home games, won all-6; scored the most home-leagues goals in the Premier League and have only conceded 5.
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| Villa Park |
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 game against Liverpool: 10/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 (occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
____________________Alvarez____________________
Doku_____________________________________Foden
_______________Silva___________________________
__________________________Lewis________________
Gvardiol__________________________________Walker
_____________Dias_____________Akanji____________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Carson, Ortega, Gomez, Ake, Stones, Phillips, Kovacic & Bobb.
Ederson to continue ‘between the sticks’.
Same back-4 as Sunday, I recon, which is Josko, who I think had his best game for us last time out; Ruben, Manuel & Kyle.
With no Rodders available, I’m going for Rico to step in with the help of Bernardo; whose energy should see him provide both a defensive & attacking dual-role.
Ahead of those, and despite some uncertainty about Jeremy after he-appeared to suffer a knock in our last outing, I’m going for the Belgium international to start on the left once again; with Julian & Phil in support once again also.
Erling to head the lot.
Two keepers on the bench in the form of Scott & Stefan; Sergio, Nathan & John make up the defensive replacements on the side. Kalvin & Mateo are the central midfielders in the 8 from a possible 9 waiting for their chance, while Oscar is the only winger / forward available for a possible change in attack.
Notable absences:
- Jack Grealish – Suspended for this match having received his 5th yellow card in Sunday’s game.
- Kevin De Bruyne – Continues to work in the background with the physios monitoring his progress; hopes continue for a January return at the latest.
- Matheus Nunes – No questions were asked in the pre-match press conference about the availability of the Portuguese international so, therefore, I’m going to assume that he’s still injured.
- Rodri – Also suspended for this match having received HIS 5th yellow card in Sunday’s game.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
1. I don’t think Phil, who I wasn’t surprised to see get substituted on 73-minutes at the weekend, was as effective as he could have been stuck out there on the right flank.
2. Julian Alvarez, despite his good, general work rate and excellent all-round teamplay, I find can quite-often disappear from games in that ‘hole’ position.
Therefore, I’m just wondering if dropping Alvarez to the bench, pushing Phil over into Julian’s position and then having either Oscar or Bernardo on the right might be more effective? Of course, if it were to be Bernardo taking up the right-wing place, then we’d then need to fill that central position with either Mateo or John (or Kalvin? Remember him?) and while I think Mateo struggled a lot in that defensive role away at Wolves, I’m not sure John would be up to many minutes at the moment.
Other than that, yep; it’s looks good to me.
Result? I’ve already mentioned the obvious fact that we’re conceding far too many goals at the moment and a lot of them, not for the first time, appear to come from fast, break-away counter attacks that seem to leave us struggling to cope a lot of the time.
At this rate, Ederson will be heading for the Golden Colander Award instead of the Golden Glove.
However, what I’ve not spoken about in this blog-posting at least is the fact that despite the high number of goals we’re scoring at the moment too – 31 in all competitions in the months of October, November and the start of December – we’re missing a high number of really good chances too.
I recall my dad saying about our football in the 1960s that it was often a case of, you score 2 and we’ll score 3. You score 3? Then we’ll score 4.
Sadly, at the moment and apart from the RB Leipzig match, it’s a case of, you score 4 and we’ll score 4 also. You score 1 and we’ll respond with 1 too. You score 3, then we’ll score 3 as well.
I feel like I have to add at this stage, that despite the refereeing utter farce that we saw towards the end of our game against Spurs, I think we were the architects of our own draw; just as we were against Liverpool recently…Chelsea too with that late penalty, when I come to think of it.
Why do we appear to take our foot off the accelerator in the second halves of games, particularly against such forceful, attacking / counter attacking sides?! That’s got to stop and soon.
Head check moment!
On Monday, I was introduced to a fellow City fan whom I’d never met before with the words, to him, “He’s a fellow Blue”. His opening words to me were, “Oh, don’t talk to me about THEM!”. He then went on to talk to me about City for almost 5 minutes…😂
THEM? The, the current champions of England? THEM? The
current champions of Europe? THEM? The, the current F.A. Cup holders? THEM? The current UEFA Super Cup
holders? THEM? The team that, only a third of the way into the season, are 3rd
in the table; just 6-points off the leaders with a game in hand and with the
best goal difference in the table? I wouldn't mind so much if he had been a bit of a kid that had been brought up watching City in the last 12 years or so but he was older than me!
A few hours later, a City fan phoned a radio football phone-in and…actually said he was concerned that we might not finish in the top-4 this season. WTaF!
Get a grip [some] Blues!
Bringing it back to tonight (8:15pm KO GMT) - on current form, I really do have to say that this one is looking a nailed-on, 4th Premier League draw in a row. We could ‘smash ‘em off the park’ and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we did…but all the ‘facts & stats’ point to a draw being the end scenario.
It doesn’t help that we’ve lost, through suspension, one of our most, if not ‘THE’ most, influential player we currently have, in Rodri. I think if it wasn’t for his loss then I was going to suggest that Pep will have had his players looking hard in the training camp at our recent shortcomings and work equally hard to rectify them; resulting in a win for us. 🤞
However, despite the fact that I CAN see us pulling off a win against such a strong home side, I just can’t see past the draw as I try to get a feel for this one.
Shared points once again it is from me, I’m afraid. I hope, in the right way of course, that I’m wrong. C’mon City!
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Drew
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Windy, chilly, at just 3C, which is likely to feel closer to 0C in that south-easterly wind. Some wet stuff moving in around kick-off time too. Yuk.
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| Solidarity |
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