…is going to be demanding for all sorts of reasons.
1. After a tough, extra-time & penalties battle late into Wednesday night, Pep informed us after the match that rather than having a full rest the following day, as they would do more often than not, the players would be back in together on the Thursday; presumably for just light training and assessment after such a gruelling night, but I don’t know for sure. Friday was then-largely a ‘travelling to London’ exercise and all before this match, which kicks off just 66 hours, or there abouts, after our clash with Real Madrid ended. 🙄
2. Chelsea, on the other hand, will have had a near-full 5-days rest since their last fixture and only have to travel 8.9 miles on day itself.
3. On Wednesday, we had 3 players, one on 90 minutes and two on 112 minutes, who asked to be taken off, whilst admitting that they simple had ‘no more to give’. That’s very understandable indeed but also not good just ahead of a semi-final and 6-game running battle for the league title.
4. Even Pep admitted that it’s more difficult to recover off the back of a defeat. However, I think what makes this occasion even more challenging is that, it must be hard for our players to pick themselves up after largely dominating last Wednesday’s game; coming out of 3 hours & 37 minutes of play with a 4-4 outcome only to be beaten on penalties, to then try ‘n’ lift their heads to ‘go again’ in another ‘win or bust’ game against a side who appear to have found some traction of late.
v Chelsea
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| Wembley Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 10/11).
On this occasion, I find myself having to go with the premise of who I think might ‘have the legs’ to ‘go again’ and where our manager thinks we could benefit from some freshness…
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1:
____________________Alvarez____________________
Grealish_____________________Foden________Doku
____________Silva______________________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gvardiol_________________________________Walker
______________Ake____________Stones___________
_____________________Ortega____________________
Subs: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Kovacic, Nunes, De Bruyne, Bobb & Haaland.
An F.A. Cup fixture sees the return of Stefan who, I’m sure, will be pleased to be back ‘between the sticks’ after his recent run in the side came to an end, following the first leg against Real Madrid on 9th April.
I’m going for a back-4 of Josko, Nathan, John & Kyle; assuming, that is, that Kyle is fit enough to put in another heavy shift after recently coming back from injury and then playing the whole of the 122 minutes just 3 days ago.
Rodders just ahead of those and just behind an attacking / creative quartet of Jack, Bernardo, Phil & Jeremy.
I’m guessing that Julian will be handed the lone striker role this evening.
Ederson steps back as reserve keeper; Rico, Manuel & Ruben are the defenders on the side, I reckon. Mateo, Matheus, Kevin & Oscar are the midfielders / wingers in ‘the 9’, while Erling might have to settle for a back-up striker position for this one.
Notable absences:
- Sergio Gomez – Not selected.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? In a rather bleak-sounding opening to this blog-posting, I mentioned that our opponents had found some traction of late and on the face of it, 8 games unbeaten in all competitions after a rather turbulent season to say the least does appear to back that up.
However, in that time and despite banging in a whopping 26 goals in those-same 8 matches, they’ve also leaked as many as 15; only managing to keep a clean sheet in their last outing. In addition, most of those undefeated games - draws or victories - have come against the likes of Leeds United, Brentford, Leicester City, Burnley, Manyoo, Sheffield United & Everton – hardly top-6 / top sides.
But whilst they appear to have become somewhat vulnerable at the back, they have clearly also become a side who knows how to ‘stick the ball away’, which brings me onto another threat we must face on Saturday evening (5:15pm KO BST). It’s the name on a lot of fans and pundit’s lips at the moment; a certain ex-City midfielder called Cole Palmer. Perhaps he should change the spelling of his first name to Coal because that burns very well and the Manchester born City fan is on FIRE at the moment!
As for us, we’re not 28 games unbeaten in open play (I’m definitely not counting last Wednesday’s penalty knock-out) and in all competitions by luck alone and we do have a squad of players to pull from whenever others need to be withdrawn.
Fair enough, any considerable changes in Pep’s preferred 11 might reduce the overall quality of the side but they wouldn’t be at Manchester City, nor in the match-day squad, if our manager didn’t have SOME faith in them…and in Pep we trust, of course.
Our Wembley opponents have held us to two draws in the league this season as we slugged it out 5-5 over both matches and, I’m sorry to say, I think this one might just go into extra time once again. I really hope not because that’s the LAST thing our players need.
It really is all about who ‘has the legs’, them or us, plus any added adrenalin fuelled by determination and it’s a hard one to call. I think I’m gonna look at quality of the fresh personnel possibly coming into ‘the 11’ plus the quality-also of those who I believe can ‘go again’ [after Wednesday] and call it as a City win; one that I hope we can complete in ‘the 90’. 🤞
To finish all of that off, it was good to read what Kyle had to say following our European exit in midweek:
"We are a collective – we win and lose together. We’ve got another important final on Saturday against Chelsea," Walker said. "It hurts and we’ve got to feel the pain. It’s a set-back. Hopefully that give us the motivation to go on and do something special at Wembley.
"We are professionals, and we have to do it [bounce back]. We owe it to the fans and the lads as a group of players because we’ve worked too hard to throw it away now. We’ve got a massive run-in for the Premier League, a really big game against Chelsea and we have to take this as motivation to go on and do something special. The best thing in football is you have a game to put it right next week and Saturday is a massive game. It’s a great opportunity to take this hurt and fire from our belly.”
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during the game: Dry (YAAAY!) with the possibility of some evening sunshine. However, 10C is gonna feel more like 7 or 8C with that seemingly-persistent, nagging & brisk northerly breeze we’ve been experiencing of late. Coats needed once again City fans…
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| Solidarity |
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