The Manchester v Trafford derby.

More of what we witnessed last Tuesday, please, both from the players and the fans; who were both amazing that night!

v Manyoo

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 5/11).

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1 perhaps):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Bobb______________________________________Silva

 

_________De Bruyne____________Foden___________

 

_____________________Rodri_____________________

Ake______________________________________Walker

_____________Dias_____________Stones____________

 

 

____________________Ederson_____________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Susoho, Kovacic, Nunes, Doku & Alvarez.

Ederson returns in net for this league encounter, following domestic cup action 5-days earlier.

A back-4 come 3 of Nathan, Ruben, John & Kyle.

Rested in midweek (👍), Rodders resumes his place just ahead of those and I’m going for an attacking / creative quartet of Oscar, Kevin, Phil & Bernardo.

Erling to ‘top the lot’.

Stefan returns to the bench after another ‘good showing’ in midweek, I thought; Sergio, Rico & Manuel make up the defenders on the side.

Mahamadou, Mateo, Matheus & Jeremy are the midfielders / wingers in ‘the 9’, while Julian provides a back-up striker option.

Notable absences:

-       Josko Gvardiol – Still out with an ankle issue but having resumed training in the last week; the Croatian international is-presumably closer to a return than he was several days ago.

-       Jack Grealish – Out injured once again with the same, or similar, groin injury. There was no information from our manager about a return date but it’s gonna be weeks, at least, by the sounds of it.

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

Yep.

Result? Derby games are what they are and, therefore, it does tend to add an extra layer of uncertainty where…‘anything can happen on the day’.

If we play anywhere NEAR like we did last Tuesday then this is an absolute shoo-in for us! Play like we have done in some-half-games before Tuesday night’s 2-6 away win and we’ll most definitely give our visitors a shot at denying us all-3 points this afternoon.

We are on a roll for sure but our last performance suggested to me that we’ve also found our ‘groove’ on the back of an amazing run of results, if not-necessarily ‘top performances’.

I’m going for a City win.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Dry, light cloud and perhaps even a bit of sunshine. Fresh without being too cold at around 7 or 8C. Perfect day for a game of football.

Solidarity