All change!

Well, mostly…

v Watford

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).

A very fluid 4-1-4-1-0 / 4-5-1-0 / 4-6-0:

_______________________________________________

 

_____________________Foden____________________

 

Grealish______________________Nunes______Savinho

___________McAtee______________________________

____________________Kovacic____________________

 

Wilson-Esbrand_____________________________Lewis

____________Stones____________Akanji____________

 

 

_____________________Ortega____________________

Subs: Ederson, Walker, Gvardiol, Smith, Wright, O’Reilly, Silva, Doku and Haaland.

Stefan becomes custodian of the net for the first time this season and since signing an extended contract in the summer.

There’s got to be a lot of changes to the outfield players after an exhausting and somewhat bruising match just over 48 hours earlier and that starts with our defence.

With Rico Lewis fully rested since his last match 6 days ago, he surely gets the right-wing back role tonight. Goal hero, John, only came on for the last 20 minutes of last Sunday’s game so I’m banking on him to give Ruben Dias a little respite. Although he had a couple of wobbly moments in pre-season in the United States, this has to be an opportunity to give a rare, specialist left-wing back a go, so Josh it is. Can Manuel give us 45 minutes on Tuesday night? Would it be fair? Would it be risky? Despite the fact that we’re facing Championship opposition, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to give a debut start to a young, central defender. However, if Pep does ask our Swiss international to give him some more of his energy and experience then I would hope that we’re in a position to reward that with an early withdrawal before weekend’s early kick-off (Saturday 28^th September, 12:30pm BST).

James and Matheus must be chomping at the bit for some game minutes and should be relishing the chance for a starting place. Jack was only involved for the final 20 minutes of last Sunday’s game and having been substituted BY Jack; Savinho’s young legs should allow him to at least give us the first 45 minutes of this encounter.

I’m going for us not to have an out ‘n’ out striker for this one but I’m guessing that Guardiola might give Phil a start and in the most advanced position of ‘false 9’.

Ederson steps back for the first time to find a comfy seat on the side; Kyle, Josko and Isaac are the three defenders on the bench in my predicted squad for this match. Jacob, Nico and Bernardo are the three midfielders in reserve; Jeremy is the only winger in ‘the 9’ and Haaland the only back-up striker.

Other youth contenders for a place in the match-day squad could be…

-       Harrison Parker – Defender - Centre

-       Brooklyn Nfonkeu – Winger – Left / Right

-       Justin Oboavwoduo – Winger / Forward – Left / Right / Centre

-       Tai Sodje - Striker

-       Will Dickson – Forward / Striker

Notable absences:

-       Nathan Ake– Out injured with either a thigh / muscle injury or a ‘hammy’. The Dutch international will be out for around 6 weeks from the date we were given the information, which was 13^th September.

-       Ruben Dias – Not selected / rested.

-       Rodri – Injured and possibly out for the rest of the season with a, suspected / rumoured for now, Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury. 😢😔

-       Ilkay Gundogan – Not selected / rested.

-       Kevin De Bruyne – Injured. I’m not entirely sure of the nature of the injury nor the expected length of time out, although we were told by Pep in the embargoed section of his post-Arsenal press conference that it won’t be long before we see Kev return. One source says that the nature of the problem is his groin / hip / pelvis area and Pep appeared to indicate, in a rather comical way, that the issue was in that region.

-       Oscar Bobb – Out injured with a fractured leg that he received in training. Expected return is anywhere between mid-November and mid-December, going off the initial assessment / information released.

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

If I knew of a sensible way we could avoid having to start Akanji once again then I would suggest it but, other than that, yep.

Result?

Our visitors got their season off to a flyer with 3 league wins from 3 but have faltered somewhat since, with an LDL next to those first 3 Ws. The last loss, in fact, was a 4-1’er away at 11^th-placed Norwich City. Watford currently sit 8^th.

They do know where the net is being, as they are, the joint-3^rd-top goal-scorers in the division but they also leak too – scoring 10 but conceding 9 in those 6 fixtures.

They beat Milton Keynes Dons (5-0) and Plymouth Argyle (2-0) to get to this round of the League Cup.

Cup games do tend to throw up some unusual results and/or a shock or two and I suppose if we are to put out a side that can be considered partially ‘second string’, then we could be in the mix for a potential upset. However, I very much doubt it. Yes they have scored 17 goals in those 8 games in all competitions so, yeah; they may well breach our defence. Huh…nearly everyone else has this season so far… 🙄

Still, I think we’ll have way, way too much for The Hornets, especially at home. 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: After a dull Monday and before a dull-damp Wednesday evening / Thursday, Tuesday is not too bad at all really. It’s mostly dry and, in fact, is forecast to BE dry for the game itself. Chilly, at 11C, so we’re definitely into warm coat territory for this one. No conditions that will affect the match at all.

Solidarity