An animal fighting for its very life and…

…a recently wounded one too. We need to be careful and be really ‘on it’ as well if we are to earn ourselves another 3, critical points.

v Nottingham Forest

City Ground

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

With the “pre-match” press conference for this fixture being tagged onto the post-match press conference from our last game in Friday’s 'embargoed section' due to tight scheduling, there’s a little more doubt about and information regarding the fitness & availability of players; seeing as there was no training session / player assessment available for our manager as he sat in front of the press staff.

Additionally, and according to Pep, there would be no actual training session in-between both matches; there would, instead, be a day’s rest followed by more travelling and whatever ‘prep’ they could then fit in.

A little rotation, would be my guess…

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Alvarez____________________

 

 

 

Grealish_____________________Foden________Doku

__________De Bruyne___________________________

_____________________Rodri____________________

 

Gvardiol_________________________________Walker

_____________Dias_____________Stones__________

 

 

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Ortega, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Kovacic, Nunes, Silva, Bobb & Haaland.

Ederson is one of those who is unlikely to be rotated and, therefore, starts in goal.

There could well be, however, some changes to the back line with less than 3-days between our last fixture and this - I’m going for both Josko & Kyle to start once again on the flanks of our defence, with Ruben & John coming into the ‘starting 11’ in the middle.

Rodders is highly likely to be asked to ‘go again’ just in front of those.

I can also imagine that we’ll see two changes in the attacking quartet in midfield; with Jack & Jeremy starting either side of Kevin & Phil.

Julian, who I thought had is best game for some weeks last Thursday, to start once more up front.

Stefan provides keeper insurance; Rico, Manuel & Nathan are the defenders on the side for this one. Mateo, Matheus, Bernardo & Oscar are the midfielders / wingers in ‘the 9’ and I THINK we might see the return of Erling in the matchday squad, at least. Latest reports from our manager were that he was feeling better.

Notable absences:

-       Sergio Gomez – Not selected.

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

Yes, looks good to me.

Result? We were stung by our hosts in this same fixture last season, with an 84^th minute equaliser from the home side following total City dominance but far too many missed chances. We had 23-shots on goal that day but only 6 of those were on target. With that in mind and with what I’ve already alluded to in my opening statement; we need to be careful not to fall into the same trap. Additionally, I can imagine the home crowd being REALLY up for this one; supporting a team who have their collective backs against the wall.

I’ve just watched highlights from our game against Forest earlier THIS season at our place, where we won 2-0. If we can reproduce the same, quick-accurate passing and be just as clinical with our end product with fantastic team play then we won’t go wrong this afternoon. We played some incredible football that day, particularly early in the first half. I just hope our opponents don’t try to wind up Rodri again and if they do, let’s hope the Spanish international keeps his cool this time because he saw a ‘straight red’ for violent conduct in that fixture.

All things weighed up; I’m going for a City win. As seems to be the case with most of my blog-postings & predictions this season, I think our hosts might breach our defence but if they do; I just hope that they don’t score first and that we have at least 3 ‘in the bag’ if they do happen to find the back of our net; such is the importance of a win.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Draw

(There was no pre-match blog-posting for that game due to me being away on holiday)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Dry for the match 👍 but after a very wet night and morning, I expect the pitch to be zippy. That usually suits us. Quite breezy and so 11C is likely to feel more like 9C. 9C (48F)…3 days before May!

Solidarity