With our league form all over the flippin’ place (last 6 reads L W L W L D) and a top-4 finishing starting to look less and less likely week by week, should that form continue that is; this F.A. Cup fixture might make for some light relief.
But, of course, this isn’t going to be at all easy.
There’s a bit of a blog announcement at the end of this piece.
Another somewhat painful look back
Despite a fairly decent first half showing from our lads, there was a lot to feel irritated about our last performance at home to Brighton a fortnight ago.
Our defence never looked anything other than disorganised, especially on our often-exposed flanks, and I agree with those City fans who highlighted, just after the final whistle, Pep’s substitution inaction and baffling decision making regarding our midfield selection.
And, once again, I find myself utterly perplexed about the exciting-LOOKING pair of Jeremy Doku and Savinho; a wing duo who continue to be thrilling on the eye but provide a lack of end product more often than not.
Some might say that a share of the points was about right and that would be about fair enough. But I also agree with the many City fans who said that The Seagulls were the slightly better side over ‘the 90’ and that we were damn lucky to get away with the draw. They had chances to bury us towards the end.
Same ol’ story once again - far more possession from City (60.4% to Brighton’s 39.6%) but same ol’ story once again too; not using that ball dominance to hurt the opposition nearly enough. There were more shots from the visitors; a higher ‘xG’ (Expected Goals) and one more corner than we had.
With a respectful nod to Brighton for the way they played - what a sad decline we find ourselves in…😢
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| Vitality Stadium |
With a half thought that we might see Claudio Echeverri get a place on the bench at the expense of someone else…
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 7/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:
____________________Haaland____________________
_Marmoush________________________________Doku_
________Grealish_________________Silva___________
___________________Gonzalez_____________________
Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis
____________Dias_______________Khusanov________
____________________Ortega____________________
Subs: Ederson, O’Reilly, Reis, Kovacic, Gundogan, Nunes, Foden, De Bruyne and Savinho.
Stefan is likely to get a starting place for this domestic cup game.
A back-4 of Josko, Ruben, Abdukadir and Rico is my guess.
Nico patrolling in front of those and I’m going for Pep to pick Omar on the left, Jeremy on the right with Jack and Bernardo between those.
Erling up top.
Ederson has been training since Wednesday following a recent abdominal issue and should provide keeper insurance; attacking midfielder, Nico, and Vitor are two defenders on the side for this one. Mateo, Ilkay, Phil and Kevin make up four midfielders in ‘the 9’, while Savinho gives us a change of wing option from the bench.
Notable absences:
- John Stones – Out with a thigh injury for 3-½ to 5-½ weeks, going off the initial assessment and information given.
- Manuel Akanji – Possibly out for the rest of the season after badly damaging his abductor muscle, for which he had surgery on 15th February. Best case scenario is that he could be back around the end of April / beginning of May.
- Nathan Ake – Recovering from a fractured foot, for which he has had surgery. This one sounds like it could be a season-ending injury.
- Rodri – Continues to train as he continues his long journey back to fitness following an ACL injury last September.
- James McAtee – Not selected.
- Oscar Bobb – Continues to train with his teammates as he makes his way back from a fractured leg that he suffered last August.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Hufff...excuse me. Yeah, looks decent..
Result?
Just as was the case last season, our hosts have impressed a fair number of pundits and neutrals on occasions this season and that’s despite spending the majority of 2024/25 in and around the mid-table zone. And just as was the case last season too, they’ve hit a few rocks towards the back end of the current campaign. I’m not saying that the wheels have come off the Cherries’ machine but a last 6 of L W L L D L in the league does more than suggest that they going through a bit of a rough patch.
However, and as I alluded to in my subheading about this not being an easy game; in the league Bournemouth have lost the same amount of games as we have, have won just two less and have a slightly better defensive record. Factor in the uncertainty of a domestic cup clash at a ground that can prove tricky if the home side are firing on the day and it makes this one a game where we’ll need both graft and craft if we want to progress to the semi-finals. Some better defending wouldn’t go amiss either…
It's a tough one to call for sure. It’ll be tight and it may well go to extra time (penalties beyond that). I’m going for us to nick this one – it’s a City win from me.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during the game: Beautiful day on the south coast for a game of footy. Blue skies and bright sunshine on the day the clocks go forward to give us an extra hour of the bright yellow thing in the sky. 14 / 15C sounds very pleasant indeed and even a gentle, north-westerly breeze only takes the edge off that ever so slightly. ☀😎🏖🍺⚽
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| C'mon Blues! |
This is a game that’s very easily accessible to watch being, as it is, on terrestrial television and I hope to be able to watch it.
However, I’m on ‘Day 5’ of horrible, winter-like lurgy and my TV concentration just hasn’t been the best of late; that’s when I’ve been able to stay awake that is 😩🥱. I only managed to get this piece completed and published because I had the international break to prep most of it before the ‘lurg monster’ got me last Wednesday.
It’s for this reason, plus current midweek time constraints, that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll get a pre-match blog posting out ahead of Wednesday’s home, must-win-game against Leicester City.
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| Solidarity |
