…and so little time for me; following a brief holiday plus an early Saturday morning appointment.
Vitality Stadium
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog-wise, was our game against Southampton: 11/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Haaland____________________
Nunes_____________________________________Silva
_______________________________Foden___________
__________Gundogan____________________________
____________________Kovacic____________________
Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis
____________Ake_______________Stones___________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Carson, Ortega, Dias, Simpson-Pusey, Wright, McAtee, O’Reilly and Savinho.
Ederson in goal.
I’m going for a back 4 of Josko, Nathan, John and Rico.
Mateo just ahead of those, with the in-form Matheus, not-so-in-form Ilkay, Phil and Bernardo ahead of the Croatian.
A rested [in midweek] Erling heads the lot.
8 from a possible 9 on the bench, if I’m correct that is, includes two keepers in the form of Scott and Stefan, with Ruben and Jahmai being our only two defenders on the side. Jacob, James and Nico are three very young midfield replacements hoping to get some minutes, while Savinho, who took a heavy knock in midweek, might be okay to complete the eight as our only wing replacement option.
Our manager was unsure about who would be fit to take part in today’s game when he conducted his pre-match press conference yesterday so there’s certainly more guesswork than usual there, I’m afraid.
What he has told us is that in addition to the players who are definitely out - plus Savinho who is most certainly feeling sore but could be involved in the matchday squad - is that Ruben Dias has also been playing through some pain in recent weeks. That does go some way to explaining the odd below-par performance from the Portuguese international and if he is struggling a little then he may start on the bench this afternoon; although he did start last Wednesday’s game and was withdrawn at half time, so… 🤷♂️
Notable absences:
- Kyle Walker – Still out with a knee injury and still an unknown return date.
- Manuel Akanji – Out with a muscular injury of some kind. Unknown return date.
- Rodri – Injured Anterior Cruciate Ligament and will be missing for the remainder of the season following surgery.
-
Kevin
De Bruyne – Continues to train to some degree as
he recovers, very slowly and very steadily, from a groin / hip / pelvic issue. Unknown
return date but we were told yesterday that there has been some improvement in recent days; allowing the Belgium international to make a small step up in his training / recovery process.
- Jack Grealish – Injured. The nature of the injury remains unclear and we are told that he won’t be available until after the next international break.
- Jeremy Doku – Similar to Jack, the nature of Jeremy’s medical issue has also not been made clear but he too won’t be available until after the international break.
- Oscar Bobb – Out injured with a fractured leg that he received in training way back when. A likely return is January / February.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result?
Our hosts have been receiving a lot of praise from various pundits every time I’ve tuned in to sports radio chatter in the last week or so and when I look at the table, I’m left wondering if, like Wolves, their performance haven’t always generated the right result. I say that because they find themselves slap-bang in the middle of the table (11th) for good reason – they’ve Played 9, Won 3, Drawn 3, lost 3; scored 11 and conceded 11 also.
Having not really watched them this season other than the odd highlight, all I can deem from that is they would appear to be a very organised and tight outfit - a good number of teams both above and below them have let in anywhere between 16 and 25 goals in those same 9 matches, so I suppose 11 from 9 played is quite impressive.
Injuries, doubts and creaking limbs aside; I still look at that predicted starting 11 that’s had almost 3 days recovery time and believe it’s enough to come away with all-3 points.
I think a key area – and one that The Cherries might try to exploit – is the Kovacic / Gundogan zone in front of the defence. If we get that wrong / aren’t completely ‘on it’ then we are likely to concede and put ourselves under pressure to hurt that seemingly tight defence of theirs.
One pundit, just yesterday, had us down for a 1-4 win and although I hoped he was correct, I thought to myself…have you even watched us recently? Are you just rolling a dice to predict the score?
Whether we do score one, two OR four I do believe that we will score more than them. I personally believe it’ll be a tight affair but it’s a welcome 3 points to us in our penultimate league game before the third international break of this short season so far. City to win.
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: Pretty breezy but at 14C in early November, that’s not too bad at all; especially as it’s gonna be dry for the game too. ☁⚽🥧🧥
Solidarity
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