Last Sunday’s game went pretty much as I expected – getting battered at times but, as I had hoped, showing some signs of getting ourselves back, to some degree, to what we’ve come to expect from a Pep Guardiola, Manchester City side.
Yes, there were still some poor passes and bad decisions made from some of our players but it wasn’t all that bad following an opening 20-minute onslaught.
‘Turning the corner’ and some players coming back to fitness - as well as some kind of belief in themselves - is how it felt to me and other City fans at the end of the match. 🤞
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 6/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1:
____________________Haaland____________________
Doku____________________________________Savinho
______________________________De Bruyne________
____________Silva_______________________________
___________________Gundogan___________________
Ake______________________________________Walker
___________Akanji______________Dias_____________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Carson, Ortega, Lewis, Gvardiol, McAtee, O’Reilly, Foden, Nunes and Grealish.
After a rare seat on the bench in a league game last Sunday; I’m guessing Ederson will return for this one. A quick comment on that: I understand Pep’s reasoning to try something different at the back but I felt that Ederson was unlucky. He’s been one of our more consistently good players during this rather large ‘blip’. That being said, I thought Stefan was really good last Sunday.
A back-4 of Nathan, Manuel, Ruben and Kyle is my guess.
Ilkay, Bernado and Kevin make up 3 central midfielders, with Jeremy and Savinho either side.
Erling up top.
Two keepers on the side in the shape of Scott and Stefan; Rico and Josko are two defensive replacement options. James, Nico, Phil and Matheus are four midfielders waiting for their turn, while Jack is a change of wing option.
Notable absences:
- John Stones – Continues to be absent with an ongoing foot injury. Unknown return date.
- Rodri – Out with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury and will be missing for the remainder of the season following surgery.
- Mateo Kovacic – Out for around 2-½ weeks with an undisclosed injury that he picked up on international duty.
- Oscar Bobb – Out injured with a fractured leg that he received in training last August. A likely return is deemed to be January / February.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result?
Less league defeats than we have; less league goals conceded and just a point behind us. Yes folks, if there were any City fans out there who looked at this fixture as being the one to definitely end our winless streak, then they might want to reevaluate that. Our visitors also have a decent away record this season.
16 goals scored in 13 league games played doesn’t sound very impressive but sitting a very healthy 6th, as they do; they must be doing something right. That “something” is their goals conceded. 13 in those-same 13 games suggests a tight, organised and, without having watched ‘em, a likely-hardworking side. This is going to be one of those games that is really gonna test our creativity, inventiveness and patience. Whisper it – and I hope I’m not tempting fate here – at least our recently fragile defence might get an easier time of it tonight (7:30pm KO GMT).
I’ve suggested that Kev might start tonight and we really need him close to the best he can possibly be at 33-years of age with injury niggles never far away if he’s not careful. We also need more ‘end product’ from our wingers and Erling to find his killer instincts once again; all while the likes of Ilkay and Bernardo do the best impressions they possibly can of defensive midfielders.
We could still suffer some confidence issues tonight but I am going for us to overcome them in the end and I’m having this one as a City 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: Very wet and quite windy too. 9C is the official temperature but I can imagine it feeling cooler that that. Greasy pitch a-go-go…
Will I be watching it? I hope so. However, having now got the SECOND lurgy in two weeks, there’s a possibility that I may not.
Solidarity
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