A Wolves side cut adrift…

…at the bottom of the table BUT who have found some steel in recent weeks.

As Manyoo, West Ham, Everton and, more recently, Newcastle all discovered when failing to beat the West Midlands side, the men in gold and black are no longer pushovers.

v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Etihad 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 2-0 thumping in the derby: 8/11).

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Doku___________________________________Semenyo

 

___________Silva(C)_______________Cherki__________

 

_____________________Rodri(VC)___________________

Ait-Nouri___________________________________Lewis

____________Ake_________________Guehi__________

 

 

__________________Donnarumma__________________

Subs: Trafford, O’Reilly, Alleyne, Khusanov, Grey, Foden, Mukasa, Reijnders and Marmoush.

Gigi continues in net and will be desperate to keep a clean sheet, I’m sure. And I say that just a week on from a PotM, 9/10 performance in the Manchester derby. 👏👏👏👏…

I’m going for our back-4, occasional 3, to look like Rayan-A- and Rico on the flanks, with new signing Marc alongside Nathan in the middle.

Just ahead of those, Rodders will likely be asked to ‘go again’ following a start 3-½ days earlier and will be looking for a much improved performance not just from his teammates but himself; as he continues to get back up to speed following a year out with a cruciate ligament tear and subsequent knee and hamstring issues.

Further forward, I’m going for Jeremy, Bernardo, Rayan-C- and Antoine, all in support of Erling up top.

James is reserve keeper; Nico-O-, Max and Abdukodir provide defensive cover from the side. Charlie, Phil, Devine and Tijjani make up four midfielders in ‘the 9’, while Omar finally gives us another out ‘n’ out striker option from the bench; with the Egyption international also able to play deeper and wider if necessary as well.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Stefan Ortega – Not selected.

-       Mattheus Nunes – Still has a flu virus; was going to be assessed by the doctors after yesterday’s pre-match press conference but I would say it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see the 27-year-old this afternoon.

-       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 16^th January that he was hoping to have the England international back soon. Whether that’s pure hope or a signal that John was making good progress, I just don’t know.

-       Josko Gvardiol – Out with a fractured tibia, for which he has had surgery. On 23^rd January, we were informed that it will be at least 2 more months before the Croatian international might be ready to return, which takes him up to the end of March.

-       Ruben Dias – Remains out with a hamstring injury and we were told that it would be 4-to-6-weeks from 6^th January. Estimated return is around mid-February.

-       Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.

-       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. 🤞

-       Nico Gonzalez – Still hasn’t fully recovered from a knock that he received on 7^th January. Unknown return date but he sounds close.

-       Oscar Bobb – Out with a muscular / hamstring issue. Unknown return date. Unless I’m reading way too much into it, what concerned me when our manager was asked on 19^th January for an update on the Norwegian international, was that his upbeat mood at the time changed instantly to a one of dissatisfaction. When he added the words, “…he [the player himself] said he’s not fit”. As he then shrugged his shoulders, the look of disappointment on his face was striking and I fear that Oscar may have played his last game for us. What a shame.

-       Savinho – Out with an unspecified leg injury. It was said on 7^th 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. On 23^rd January, we were given an update and that was that the young Brazilian started back with some light training / running the day before.

I say, not for the first time regarding that list, WOW! 😧

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Almost.

There’s nothing I can suggest about the right-wing back with Nunes being out, other than putting a central defender there such as Khusanov. That situation simply is what it is at the moment… ‍🤷‍️️

However, what I can and would change is the man up front. The big man clearly needs a break and has even admitted it himself. I also think that we could do with a little shake up too, could I suggest, and I think a home-league fixture is the ideal time to do just that. Marmoush would get a starting place this afternoon if I was in the hot seat.

Result?

Up to ‘Gameweek 18’ and out of a possible 54 points, our Saturday afternoon visitors had just 2 points. TWO POINTS! Now, 8 points from 22 league games played still sounds abysmal but that ‘steel’ I spoke of at the beginning looks like this in terms of their last 6 form: L L D W D D.

Put another way, they are in better recent form than we are at the moment.

“We are fragile”. The words of Pep Guardiola after Tuesday night’s horror show from our lads; the second nightmare display in just three days. 😱

We know we’ve got a decimated defence; not just the middle but the loss of converted right-wing back, Matheus Nunes, due to flu hasn’t helped either. What’s also not helped is a huge drop-off in form of Nico O’Reilly and, of the returning [from AFCON] Rayan Ait-Nouri; I think I’ve only ever seen one, perhaps two good defensive displays from him since he arrived. Of course he’s been absent for a good while through injury before he jetted off so I’m more than prepared to hold full judgment on the 24-year-old for the time being.

But I think it’s more than just our defence. Although we’ve shown glimpses of being a well-connected group of players who understand one another, that’s only happened during brief spells in our season so far. I think, at times, we look anything BUT a team; appearing to struggle a lot of the time with the concept of balance between attacking and defending.

I could also point the finger at some individuals too and there will be time for that in my close season ‘player ratings’ piece in May / June. All I will say for now is that I currently have SIX players on 5/10 or less; with another four players very close to joining them.

That is dire and makes me wonder how the hell we find ourselves second in the Prem; only outside the top-8 of the Champions League on goal difference, in the 4^th-round of the F.A. Cup and leading in the two-legged semi-final of the League Cup! Imagine where we’d be if we could string some consistently good performances together? Worryingly, a lot of Blues who travelled to Norway in midweek used the same words after the game, “No fight”. 😧

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At this point, I’d just like to say well done to all the City fans who splashed some serious cash and braved the extreme cold to travel to Norway a few days ago and well done to the players too, who have all dipped their hands into their pockets to fully refund all after such a poor display.

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Defending us, I would remind detractors that we have been hit hard with injuries at a time where we also lost two players to AFCON.

Not only were we hit really hard in the heart of our defence but we lost midfielders and wingers too and when you’re fighting on all four fronts and facing a winter fixture list like we have in England, then that will take it’s toll on players legs and minds. Just look at the amount of EDS players we’ve had either on the pitch or bench in recent weeks, as well as two substitute keepers on some occasions in order to fill the bench.

It’s not just O’Reilly that appears to be suffering with fatigue; Haaland admitted to his boss very recently that he was flaggin’ and God only know what’s happened to Phil Foden once again. After a very brief period where it looked like he was back, he soon faded once more.

I’m also worried that we’ll never see Rodri get anywhere NEAR back to his best, let alone get fully back to the Rodri we’ve all been privileged to have watched in a City shirt. He’s looked way off it in his last two outings.

After everything I’ve said about both Wolves and ourselves, there’s no way I should be predicting a City win. However, I just see this game as a fresh start for us and that feeling is largely dictated by the high probability that we’ll see new signing, Marc Guehi, start in defence; hopefully alongside the rested and experienced Nathan Ake and, further up front, see Antoine Samenyo make his home Premier League debut. It’s also worth noting that both Bernardo Silva and Antoine Samenyo will have had a week off by the time we start against Wolves and Marc Guehi won’t have kicked a ball in anger for a fortnight. 🔋👍

I have to believe also that after he largely defended his players in front of the cameras in midweek, Pep then got in the ear of all of ‘em and won’t have stopped all week long.

Call me bold or stupid, following our last two displays, but I’m going for a City win and I am hoping to see a much improved performance too.

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 a damp'ish couple of days in the region, the Football and Weather Gods came to a Greenland-style agreement; shook hands and will be delivering some dry sunny weather for the match. 8C is the forecasted high temperature but the increased wind that we’ve seen this week remains and makes it “feel like” just 5C. ⛅😎🧥🍵🥧🍺⚽

Solidarity