Liverpool away, Arsenal at home and now Aston Villa at home. It doesn’t get much tougher than facing all of our top-4 league neighbours in back-to-back games…well, apart from having to-soon-face Real Madrid twice and a yet-to-be-arranged Spurs away fixture.
But APART from that, what did the Romans
ever do for us? our league run-in doesn’t look too bad…just
whisper it and whatever you do, don’t DARE suggest it to Pep.
v Aston Villa
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| 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 / 4-3-3 (perhaps an occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
Doku______________________________________Silva
__________De Bruyne__________Foden_____________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis
_____________Dias______________Akanji___________
_____________________Ortega____________________
Subs: Carson, Gomez, Alleyne, Stones, Kovacic, Nunes, Bobb, Grealish & Alvarez.
Stefan continues his league outings in-between ‘the sticks’.
Under the circumstances, I can’t envisage anything other than a back-4 of Josko, Ruben, Manuel & Rico.
Rodders just in front of those and then an attacking / creative 4 of Jeremy, Kevin, Phil & Bernardo would be my guess.
Erling ‘up top’.
Scott is the reserve keeper; Sergio, Max & John (the latter considered as improving but slowly-slowly does it) are the defenders on the side. Mateo, Matheus, Oscar & Jack are the midfielders / wingers in reserve, while Julian is remains back-up striker at the moment.
Notable absences:
- Ederson – Injured. Thigh issue and no update on a possible return date as yet.
- Kyle Walker – Injured. It’s a hamstring problem, I think, and it doesn’t sound too good. Pep was asked on Tuesday afternoon if the England man would be ready to face Real Madrid [on 9th April] and his response was that the Doctor said, “No”. Guardiola, of course, appeared very hopeful that this was a pessimistic, worse-case-scenario prognosis from the medical staff.
- Nathan Ake – Out injured with what looked like a calf issue he received in our last fixture and it sounds like he will be missing for a few games also.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? In some ways, today’s visitors remind me a little of Newcastle United and what I said about the North East side recently. They’ve turned out to be an unpredictable side after the fairly strong-steady outfit they appeared to be earlier in the season.
In fact, their March results sum them up perfectly:
- Slugged it out away at Luton, a side renowned for being highly spirited with a never-say-die attitude, to come away from Kenilworth Road with a 2-3 win.
- They then went to Ajax and kept a clean sheet in a 0-0, first-leg draw.
- Came home and got slammed 0-4 at Villa Park by Spurs.
- Battered Ajax at home 4-0 in the second leg of their European fixture.
- Only managed a 1-1 away draw at all-over-the-place West Ham; a side with the 5th-worse defensive record in the division, despite somehow sitting 7th (all written before Tuesday night’s games, I will add).
- Finally rounded March off with a 2-0 home win against Wolves.
Yep, as I say, unpredictable to say the least…
As for us, cutting through all of the increased high expectations & over-reacting from some City fans, as well as all the rest of the chaff from other fans and some pundits; I think some of our top players DO need to find an extra gear in our final 9-league games plus 2 cup competitions. As a team generally, I think we also need to improve our final pass / end product, as well as find our ‘killer touch’ which has, fair enough, been missing for large parts of the season.
However, that’s as far as I can “criticise”, if you can call what I’ve just written criticism, a side who are 23 games unbeaten, with 20 wins and 3 draws; who lie just 3 points off the top of the table, are in the semi-final of the F.A.Cup and quarter final of the Champions League. Yes, some of the time, we might not look as ‘easy on the eye’ as Pep’s City sides of seasons gone by but, for me at least, they are still a joy to watch most of the time; it’s the high number of stifling opponents who I think are colouring the perception of our gameplay and current season.
So…cutting through it all, as I say; I’m going for a City win tonight.
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: After another wet day in the region (if there’s even a HINT of a possible hosepipe ban in the summer then it could very well provoke an uprising) it actually dries up for the 8:15pm (BST) kick-off. 8C is the rather cool temperature with just a light, westerly breeze. Definitely a match to take a warm coat but at least it doesn’t have to be a waterproof one…
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| Solidarity |
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