Some repair work needed v Stoke City

Having not taken advantage of Newcastle United’s woes and lowly place in the relegation zone last Tuesday; West Ham United, Manyoo and Arsenal then-also all picked up 3 points in their scrap for 3^rd & 4^th places. Either side of those, Liverpool & Tottenham Hotspur managed 4-0 wins and so, all-in-all, it wasn’t a good week for us following some fine form and Champions League progression. 

 

We need to put this right with nothing less than a win against Mark Hughes’ men…and improving the goal difference would help / might prove vital at this stage too.

Both eyes on this one Mr Pellegrini…and players!

The irony! On Friday 4^th December I did a piece entitled, “Eyes on Stoke Mr Pellegrini”. It was the day before our away league game at Britannia Stadium; a game that lay just 3 days before our home game against Borussia Monchengladbach.

It wasn’t necessarily our manager’s team selection that undid us, as we lost that game 2-0, but rather a combination of a really ‘out of sorts’ City display against a Stoke side who were ‘right up for it’ and better than us in every way and in all departments.

The similarities both then & now, with this game being just 3-days before our home game against Real Madrid, are quite remarkable. The only thing is…if we don’t win this one then with just 3 games remaining (one against Arsenal) we could be in REAL trouble with regards to-us-not-even finishing 4^th!

v Stoke City

Predicted line-up, sub and outcome.

4-2-3-1:

____________________Aguero____________________

___Silva_______________________________Navas___

__________________De Bruyne___________________

__________________________Fernandinho_________

____________Fernando__________________________

Clichy_______Mangala_______Kompany____Zabaleta

______________________Hart_____________________

Subs: Caballero, Sagna, Otamendi, Delph, Sterling, Bony, Iheanacho.

Hard to predict this one – hard to know what’s in our manager’s head with Real looming next week…

Hart to start.

Recovered; I think we’ll see Gael back at left-back but although Bacary is deemed fit also, I think he’ll be saved for Tuesday and, so, Zaba to start again on to opposite side. Vinny will, I’m sure, be given another test following his latest injury setback; Eliaquim likely to start alongside our captain with Nicholas likely to be used on Tuesday [instead].

‘The Ferns’ likely to be reunited for this one; David, Kevin & Jesus to be the more attacking trio just behind Sergio, who, I’m sure, Pellegrini will be hoping to withdraw early’ish on, again with Tuesday in mind.

Strong bench with so few injuries – Willy the keeper cover; Bacary & Nicholas the defensive insurance. Fabian the defensive midfield cover; Raheem the more attacking option from the side and two strikers in Wilfried & Kelechi.

Notable absences: Aleks Kolarov (not selected), Martin Demichelis (not selected), Yaya Toure (rested / not selected) and Samir Nasri (injured). Wow! Only one injured! When have we been able to say that this season at least?!

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

Well…yeah, I suppose.

Had we’d achieved the 3-points we were very capable of against Newcastle last Tuesday then we could have, at least, rested the likes of Sergio for this one. But we didn’t…and we now have to ‘go for this’ and, if we do so early on, then we may be able to, at least, withdraw key players ahead of our prestige clash against the Spanish giants.

Result? I think it’s a home win, which would be very good indeed of course. I just wonder, though, how much energy we’ll have to throw into this game in order to grab a-hold of some much-needed 3-points against a side that will test us physically.

Expected weather conditions during the game: A cool, Northerly breeze but dry with a bright-sunshine-start to the game. White cloud soon drifting-in though. 9 to 10C.

The latest disappointment is brought to you…

…by the letters “T”, for Typical, and “U”, for unpredictable.

I just can’t get my head around this season

I mean…Pellegrini plays 2 defensive midfielders at home to WBA and has to swap personnel like crazy [to more creative / attacking midfielders] to just about scrape 3 points at home. He then gives me, at least, 'heart flutters' with his team selection away at Chelsea by choosing NO defensive midfielder at the same time as Kolarov is in at left-back – a gamble I have to say that paid off in eventual and impressive style. Well done.

But then last night he breaks up a defensive partnership that’s been improving hugely of late to…what? Give Vinny some game-fitness time? Could he not have come on for 30 minutes once we’d 'put the game to bed', which we were very capable of doing?

Delph on the left? Really? Delph…a left-winger? Not instead, could I suggest, working hard in the middle to break-up any Newcastle threat / protect the back-4?

Bony on for the last 12 minutes (including injury time) instead of Iheanacho? Really? REALLY?! Why?

Typical! We win away impressively 3-0 to the current champions of England and when we had an opportunity to really leap-up the league / pull away against a still-very-fragile-looking Newcastle side who still find themselves in the relegation zone; we produce a sloppy and very much fragmented display as we did last night.

And where does it leave us? Well it leaves the door wide open for Arsenal to move ahead of us again on Thursday night and, before that, West Ham & Manyoo to gain some ground tonight; particularly the latter!

And what concerns me even more in this largely dour blog-posting is that we have Stoke at home on Saturday; a game that finishes just 77 hours, or there abouts, before a certain game against acertain team from Spain. And we all know what Pellegrini is prone to doing before those type of fixtures and, indeed, did when we played Stoke at their place earlier on in the season…

Sorry, as I say, for sounding a little ‘miffed’...but that’s exactly how I felt after last night’s ‘missed opportunity’ to build / maintain a league gap. That’s how Manchester City, of course, can and, indeed, have made us feel for many years.

And as much as I love him for what he’s done and won for us over 3 seasons this is exactly how Manuel Pellegrini’s, sometimes-crazy-decisions leaves me feeling - scuffing my feet on the ground with my head down in frustration; grumbling to myself and asking…“WHY?!”

The Hokey Cokey continues

“You put your fit players in and-take your injured out…” 

 

Our season-long injury problems continue to niggle at us – JUST when it looked like we might have a near-100% attendance. And with our hosts getting a timely and emphatic 3-0 win last weekend to give ‘em a boost; all of a sudden this one looks a little more closer than I, for one, would have liked.

v Newcastle United

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome.

4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1:

____________________Aguero____________________

___De Bruyne__________________________Navas___

_____________________Toure____________________

__________________________Fernandinho_________

____________Fernando__________________________

Kolarov______Mangala_______Otamendi____Zabaleta

______________________Hart_____________________

Subs: Caballero, Kompany, Demichelis, Delph, Sterling, Bony, Iheanacho.

Not just in defence but with most departments of the pitch last Saturday; I got my prediction considerably wrong pre-Chelsea. However, I don’t think there’s much danger of that with the players available for this one. Therefore, it’s “same again” with the ‘back 5’ (Joe included).

Fernando likely to return following him-being rested at the weekend and although Fernandinho might be in need of a mini-break also; I’m betting that he’ll get another starting place tonight. Ahead of those 2 is likely to be Kevin, Yaya and Jesus, with Kevin in a slightly less-effective, left-hand-side roll to make way for the Ivorian. I’m sure though, going of recent form, the fair-headed Belgium international will still cause the home side problems…

Sergio likely to start also, despite a busy schedule of late.

Willy on the bench as back-up to Joe; Vinny returns, which is great news but likely, I think, to be on the bench alongside Martin as defensive insurance. No left & right-back cover without dipping into the EDS. Fabian continues on the bench; Raheem returns also and we have 2 strikers in reserve in Wilfried & Kelechi.

Notable absences: Gael Clichy (injured), Bacary Sagna (injured), Samir Nasri (injured) & David Silva (injured). Big players to be missing there…

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

Depends how fit / ready Raheem is really – if he is ready for a start then no, I’d stick Raheem on the left and Kevin in the middle; dropping Yaya to the bench. Other than that…yep, that’s about all he can do really with the missing personal he now has.

Result? It does concern me a little that Newcastle did get a league & morale-boosting win against Swansea City, which should give their big crowd / 12^th man a huge lift also. In addition to that I have listened to pundits who watched ‘The Toon’ last weekend and, apparently, they looked to have shape and organisation for the first time in a long, long season. Typical flippin’ timing for us…

But they’re not 19^th with 5 games to go for no reason and, despite that good win 3 days ago, a last 10 that reads, L W L L L L D L L W – F10 A20 is horrific, particularly in defence. A horror read for Newcastle, then, makes pleasant reading for us.

We’re playing so very well at the moment and although I don’t like to see those 4 players on the ‘sick list’, I still look at the ‘starting 11’ and those on the bench and can’t see anything other than another vital 3 points for us, even if it might be a caldron-atmosphere at St. James’ Park at the beginning and, perhaps, tight for a time.

Expected weather conditions during the game: Crisp, ‘sky blue’ skies,bright-evening, Spring sunshine but a nippy one at just 7C with a persistent Easterly breeze.

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