A quick, non-footballing comment regarding last Tuesday’s game before I continue. Didn’t our lads look dead smart in our all-maroon kit? Far, FAR better than that dirty-lookin’, f’in Noel Gallagher “inspired” effort, hey?
v Fulham
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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:
____________________Haaland____________________
Grealish_________________________________Savinho
_______________________________Foden___________
____________Silva_______________________________
_____________________Stones____________________
Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis
____________Dias_______________Akanji___________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Ortega, Walker, Wright, Kovacic, McAtee, Gundogan, Nunes, O’Reilly and Doku.
After a surprise [for me at least] to see Ederson dropped for a Champions League fixture in midweek – nothing whatsoever against Stefan, I’m just sayin’ – I would imagine that the Brazilian ‘gets the nod’ to start this league match.
I’m going for a back-4, occasional 3, of Josko, Ruben, Manuel and Rico.
To Stones or to Kovacic? That is the question. It might not be either.
At home, it would be another good opportunity to give Mateo another go at claiming the ‘Rodri position’…at least until January; a month where we keep being linked with a variety of defensive midfielders in the transfer market. However, despite him playing the whole 90+ minutes last Tuesday, I’ve just got a slight feeling that our manager might want to keep John’s momentum going ahead of the imminent international break; giving him a go in that position this weekend.
Ahead of the England international I’m going for Jack, Bernardo, Phil and Savinho to start.
Erling is the furthest forward of ‘em all.
Stefan returns to the bench as reserve stopper; Kyle would be the only defender on the side in my predicted matchday squad. Jacob, Mateo, James, Ilkay, who I COMPLETELY omitted from my last blog posting in error 😬, Matheus and Nico make up SIX midfielders on the bench; while Jeremy is the only natural wide man sat alongside them.
Then again, in our last league outing Pep chose to field just 8 instead of a full-9 on the bench and two of those were goalkeepers with no youth players in sight… 🤷♂️
Notable absences:
- Nathan Ake – Bit of an update on the last few weeks: Our manager said, yesterday, that he still expects Nathan to return just after the international break but that it will take time [or him to be fully ready to take part in games]. It sounds like Nathan will be back amongst his teammates on the training pitch after the domestic break but it could be a couple of weeks following that where we see him in contention for a place on the pitch. However, Pep was also of the understanding that Nathan had already started to train on grass alone, so progress is being made just ahead of the internationals. 👍
- Rodri – Injured Anterior Cruciate Ligament and will be missing for the remainder of the season.
- Kevin De Bruyne – Injured with a groin / pelvic / hip issue and could return just after this break in domestic football. Guardiola went further to say that Kevin now has to really manage his body following major hamstring surgery last season and that two games in three days is definitely no longer possible for the 33-year-old.
- 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 at the time.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
So, our last game before another annoying set of internationals and we need to end our opening seven-league-game-salvo on a high, for sure, in order to keep with the lead runners.
On Saturday, we face a side who, after their narrow, 1-0 opening-day defeat have since remained unbeaten in the league with 3 wins and 2 draws. Our visitors, therefore, need to be taken most seriously indeed and they sit just 3 points behind us in 6th place.
Apart from banging in 3 goals at home to Newcastle United, they don’t appear to be big goal scorers; with 8 from 6 league games in total. However, with just 5 conceded in those same matches it does suggest a tight, organised side.
Yes Blues fans, it’s likely to be another one where we’ll have to get past two thick-defensive walls before we get sight of their goal…
As for us, forgetting last Tuesday night’s training match in Slovakia (yes, that did sound rather arrogant but that’s how that game largely played out), I find myself looking at September’s results and while on the one hand I applaud the fact that we were undefeated in five games in all competitions; I find myself squinting and frowning just a little whilst scrutinising them in more detail.
- Brentford: Hit us hard and fast and took the lead in an opening 15 minutes where they could easily have had another couple. Credit to them but why we started so cold and didn’t appear to learn from past lessons against The Bees only Pep and the players themselves will know. Thankfully, we took a grip of the game and got there in the end with a 2-1 win.
- Inter Milan: The Italian side came to defend very professionally and then tried to hit us with moments of magic. They succeeded in keeping a clean sheet but failed to score against us. A rare clean sheet for us 👍 and European points shared.
- Arsenal: Another ‘park the bus’ performance from The Gunners at our place but despite that, they still breached us twice; albeit with one goal being surrounded in controversy. Another game where we couldn’t keep a clean sheet, and at home too, but points shared nonetheless.
- Waford: Some personnel changes but still a strong 11 put out by Pep, we managed to seal the win. However, once again we let in a goal and a better finish from our visitors right at the end could have seen ‘the 90’ end 2-2! 🙄
- Newcastle United: A really patchy performance form us – good in parts, really sloppy and slow in others with some individual performances best forgotten. Again, there was some controversy with our opponent’s goal but, once again, we couldn’t keep a clean sheet and ANOTHER points shared.
We certainly do like sharing, don’t we? And we sure are far too generous when it comes to letting the opposition score… 😖
As I say, it’s well done to us for a month of zero defeats but 3 draws and 2 narrow, 2-1 wins is hardly excellent form, do you agree? I know we have a bit of a reputation for starting campaigns a little slowly before building really good momentum further down the line but I’d like to see us deliver an improved performance and a clean sheet this afternoon.
I’m sort of looking at this game as being somewhat of a ‘springboard match’…it’s just a shame we’re jumping off that springboard into another international break.
Still, all things considered, I’m going for a City win…with a possible clean sheet thrown in for good measure.
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 one of the wettest days in a fair number of years in the region on Monday, which was then followed by a still-damp Tuesday; dry, sunny weather has broken out and it’s set to continue today. Hurray! 15C, which is almost 60F in old money, with a good amount of the yellow round thing in the sky too. Even the 11MPH breeze is a southerly one and should simply add to the overall pleasant feeling on an early October afternoon. 🌤😎⚽🍺🥧
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| Solidarity |
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