Community Shield predictions.

Manyoo at Wembley for the 5^th time in 13 years. Results? P4, W2, L2. Both times we lost to the team from Trafford was in the Community Shield. Whatever your thoughts are on this so-called “Curtain Raiser” to the season, it would be nice to make it 3-games-to-2 for us.

There’s a blog announcement at the end of this piece…

v Manyoo

Wembley Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 10/11).

I could be WELL wrong, here, with this hard-to-read scenario…

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1:

____________________Haaland___________________

 

 

 

Grealish______________________Silva________Bobb

___________McAtee_____________________________

____________________Kovacic___________________

 

Gvardiol__________________________________Lewis

_____________Ake_____________Akanji___________

 

 

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Ortega, Wilson-Esbrand, Dias, Phillips, De Bruyne, O’Reilly, Doku, Hamilton & Savinho.

(The usual 9 substitutes there but 6 are allowed to be used for this match).

Our Manager confirmed in the embargoed section of his pre-match press conference that Ederson will start in goal. Just goes to show you how unimportant this fixture is, in some ways; releasing information the day before a match about a player starting, albeit “only” a keeper / nothing revealed tactics-wise…

Despite some missing personnel in the defensive department, there are still a few options and I could well be wrong with the ones I’ve predicted to start. I believe Josko, Nathan, Manuel & Rico will get the defensive duties this afternoon; with the latter perhaps given licence to drift further forward into midfield from time to time.

Mateo gets the defensive midfield role but is likely to be helped out a little and I think that cavalry support will come in the form of James who, if selected, is likely to have a dual defensive & attacking role.

Jack, Bernardo & Oscar get more attacking licence and all in support of Erling.

Stefan is reserve stopper; Josh & Ruben are the only two defenders on the side, I’m guessing. There are other youth options who travelled to the USA on our pre-season tour. Kalvin, Kevin & Nico are 3 central midfielders in ‘the 9’ and I think we’ll see three wingers join them in the form of Jeremy, Micah & new-signing, Savinho.

Notable absences:

-       Joao Cancelo – Trapped somewhere in the Twilight Zone, perhaps?

-       John Stones – Not available for selection and returns to training next week after reaching the final of the 2024 World Cup.

-       Kyle Walker – For Kyle, read John.

-       Rodri – For Rodders, read John.

-       Matheus Nunes – Not selected but I could be wrong – Pep might choose to put him in the match-day squad instead of risking Kevin OR in place of one of the younger players that I’ve put in there.

-       Phil Foden – For Phil, read John also.

-       Julian Alvarez – In the process of signing for Atletico Madrid.

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

Yep.

Result? We don’t have a very good recent record at all with this fixture, do we? Arsenal, Leicester City, Liverpool and today’s opponents have all beaten us since 2011. In total and since 1934, however, we have won it 6 times…but have lost it on 8 occasions too. I suppose a near-43% success rate isn’t all that terrible.

It’s honestly a very hard one to predict – it really is just a glorified friendly / final warm-up game before ‘the big KO’…and a lot of players on show on Saturday won’t have warmed up anywhere near enough as yet; especially this season with the various national-team competitions around the world leading to later and longer summer breaks.

That being said, what has made my result prediction a little easier to decide is the current state of Manyoo’s squad. One source lists TEN players either definitely out or between a 50 & 75% chance of being selected in this afternoon squad.

All things considered? We make it 7 Community Shield wins from 15. It’s a City win for me.

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

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: A little dull / overcast for the game, it would seem. Pleasantly warm though, at 73F (23C in new money), and there’s a fairly stiff, westerly breeze but I’m guessing that’ll be a warm one too.

Blog announcement:

Due to a week’s holiday, there’s a small chance that I may not produce a pre-match blog posting for our opening fixture away at Chelsea, which is on Sunday 18^th August, 4:30pm KO (BST).

If I manage to do one, there’ll be more guess work than usual for a league game regarding the starting-11, due to the Sunday KO coming with an embargoed section of Pep’s pre-match press conference not being released until I’m away. Predicted player selection accuracy also depends what questions are asked of him in ‘Part 1’ on the Friday afternoon before I leave. As usual, I am very hopeful of finding somewhere to watch the match.

There will then be no pre-match blog posting for our opening HOME fixture against newly-promoted Ipswich Town (Saturday 24^th August, 3:00pm KO (BST)).

Therefore, there’s a slight possibility that my next pre-match blog posting will be ahead of our away clash with West Ham United on Saturday 31^st August, 5:30pm KO (BST).

Solidarity