A wounded animal on their own territory. The warning signs should be there for all City fans to see.
⚠️
v Manyoo
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| Scaffold Trafford |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was our home demolition of Exeter City: 7/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
Doku __________________________________Samenyo
___________Silva(C)_______________Cherki__________
_____________________Rodri(VC)___________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
___________Alleyne____________Khusanov_________
__________________Donnarumma__________________
Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, Ake, Gonzalez, Foden, Mukasa, Reijnders and McAidoo.
Gigi returns in goal following two back-to-back domestic cup games.
A back-4, occasional 3, I think will be Nico-O-, Max, Abdukodir and Matheus, although Nathan Ake could be asked to provide some experience on the left if he's able to after playing 88 minutes last Tuesday night.
Rodders to start this one ahead of those defenders.
Now, if Pep Guardiola goes with the theory that out of form players don’t start games, particularly important ones like this, then Phil Foden simply doesn’t start today and that’s despite his good record against these. That’s the idea that I’m running with so, for me, I think we’ll see Jeremy, Barnardo, Rayan and Antoine across the middle.
That being said, if Pep does go with that approach then Erling Haaland shouldn’t start either. However, I’m guessing that we’ll see the league’s top goalscorer (20 from 21 games) start this afternoon.
James returns to a side seat as reserve keeper after two-straight outings and one clean sheet; Rayan-A-, Rico and Nathan provide defensive insurance. Nico-G- may have recovered from a knock in time and, if so, will be joined by Phil, Divine and Tijjani as midfield options from the bench. Ryan completes ‘the 9’ as a wing replacement option.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Stefan Ortega – Not selected.
- Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.
- John Stones – A minor thigh issue then turned into something that was apparently going to take X-amount of months to resolve. However, since that assessment, Pep said on 16th January that he was hoping to have the England international back soon.
- Josko Gvardiol – Out with a fractured tibia, for which he has had surgery. Unknown return date.
- Ruben Dias – Out with a hamstring injury and we were told that it would be 4-to-6-weeks from 6th January.
- Mateo Kovacic – Recovering from secondary surgery to clean up some calcification in his ankle. Months ago, an expected return date was given as “February 2026” – basically, any time in the next few weeks. 🤞
- Oscar Bobb – Out with a muscular / hamstring issue. Unknown return date.
- Savinho – Out with an unspecified leg injury. It was said on 7th January that it will be 6 to 8-weeks before we could see the Brazilian international winger back in contention to be part of a matchday squad.
- Omar Marmoush – Still away on international duty.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
There’s no doubting that we are going to be facing a team full of hurt on their own patch; a side desperate to gain some form of pride amidst failure and yet more turmoil. What better fixture to do that by inviting your local rivals into your home. Despite our very good form, any City fan who believes that this will be an easy 3 points might want to have a little rethink before kick-off (12:30pm GMT).
In addition, their form in the league isn’t all that terrible - it’s just that it falls short of the standards a lot of Manyoo fans expect.
Yes they’ve been dumped out of both domestic cups at the first possible round in the same season for the first time in 44 years but despite continuing unrest at a club which just can’t find its footing, they still manage to hold on to a reasonable 7th place; just 3 points from 4th and in their last 6 league games they’ve only lost once (D L W D D D).
Will ‘new Manager syndrome’ also be a factor for them? Yeah, possibly. There’s often a positive reaction from the players following a change in management.
Will they score against us? I’m practically guaranteeing it. They have impressive attacking players who, if they’re ‘on it’ on the day, can definitely cause any side issues; especially against a team that has such a young defence, as we currently have.
However, the good news for us is that they have a very flaky defence and their midfield isn’t much better either. This could well be a 2-4 type scoreline.
But I don’t do actual score predictions when blogging, as a rule, so I’ll just stick to tradition. I’m having this one down as a City win…but with a scare or two.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Draw
Result: Drew
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Following a murky start just west of Manchester, it dries up for the game. Grey skies and barley a breeze sees temperatures at around 9C and for those wishing to take their time getting home from the stadium, they might even see some sunshine later in the day. 🧥🍵🥧🍺⚽
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| Solidarity |
