Sergio Gomez – What are we gettin’?

Yes, I’ve done the ‘video watching thing’ over the many weeks we were linked with the 21-year-old Spaniard. I read a few articles about him too.

When having doubts about his defensive qualities, I also ‘put it out there’ that I’d like to hear the opinion of an Anderlecht fan and one got back to me really quickly, saying, “Worked hard and can't say many goals against were his fault, was probably Anderlecht's best player last season. I will miss him when he is gone”. Very nice words indeed about the young man.

So, what ARE we getting?

-       Terrific acceleration / burst of speed.

-       Very good pace in general.

-       He’s a grafter, which appears to be backed up by my Anderlecht friend’s comments about him working hard for them. What I will add on that also is having watched his ‘Welcome to Manchester City’ video on our club’s own website; he seems to have a great attitude generally.

-       Like Erling Haaland, he’s a Manchester City fan. I think this might be our new recruitment policy, by the way, so if there are any young Manchester City fans reading this then start training hard and you never know…

-       He’s a good passer – good short-to-medium range passer but good at long, cross-field passes too.

-       Similarly, he’s an even better / excellent crosser of the ball from the wing.

-       I read somewhere that he’s got a crackin’ left-foot shot on him too.

Yeah but…aren’t we signing a left-wing back?

On the face of it, it does sound like…‘Here we go again; another attacking player who has been asked to convert to a more-defensive position’, doesn’t it?

I already knew before he signed, from what I’d read, that he used to play as a left-winger and he certainly has all the attributes to be just that. But when I heard from the man himself that he used to also play as an attacking midfielder and even a striker; it had me raising my eyebrows even more with regards to us getting yet another ‘converted left-wing back’ to add to our history of converted left-wing backs.

However, by all accounts his old boss, one Vincent Kompany, spotted something in Sergio and did a crackin’ job of adapting him to a deeper role.

That all sounds fine but can he tackle?

I have to say that from all the footage I’ve seen, I didn’t see much actual tackling and one well-established source had his tackling ability rated as 5/10. He doesn’t look like a “tackler” ‘per se’ at this moment in time of his young career BUT…I saw him make a lot of interceptions / blocks and generally being a nuisance to any attacking right-winger attempting to get past him and his defence. One thing’s for sure, his pace definitely helps him to track dangerous attacking players and it will help him get back should he / we get ‘caught on the hop’.

If I was to try ‘n’ sum him up to a City fan who knew nothing whatsoever about him, I might be tempted to say…imagine a slightly smaller OleksandrZinchenko; one with the same great attitude & work rate but faster; with a better pass, cross and shot capability. Time will tell on that but I don’t think I’d be far off with that comparison.

And he goes straight into the squad too (number 21 if you didn’t know and was wondering); isn’t being loaned out and will compete with right-wing back Joao Cancelo & specialist youth, left-wing back, Josh Wilson-Esbrand for a place on the left-defensive flank.

11M-squid plus add-ons for a young lad with abilities, plenty of promise and a great attitude is something of a bargain too these days, I’d say.

And here’s a bonus – with all those attributes that I’ve just mentioned plus his previous experience in more advance positions; what the club have done also, in my opinion, is give us another attacking option down that left flank. We recently lost Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, who could / did play there, and with Jack Grealish far from convincing me, as yet; having the option of Sergio playing ahead of, say, Joao Cancelo can only be a good thing. It could even be the spark Jack needs after perhaps feeling less pressure in the last few weeks as he watched both Raheem & Gabriel depart…

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read and just a reminder that I won’t be doing a pre-match blog posting ahead of our away trip to Newcastle United due to going away on holiday. Hopefully I’ll be back blogging ahead of our home game against Crystal Palace the following weekend.

Blog announcement

Due to going away for a week’s holiday this-coming Friday, there’ll be no pre-match blog posting prior to our away trip to Newcastle United on Sunday 21^st August; a game I’m still hoping to watch. I should be back in the afternoon on Friday 26^th August, so I would imagine that I’ll be able to get a pre-match blog posting out mid-morning’ish on Saturday 27^th August, a few hours ahead of our home match against Crystal Palace.

There is actually another game that we have in-between both of those league fixtures, which is a charity friendly in Spain on Wednesday night against Barcelona. Assuming he travels, I hope we triple-check that Bernardo Silva is back on the plane before they close the doors prior to take off on our return trip…

In the meantime, there’s a chance that I might do a brief profile piece about our new signing, Sergio Gomez, which could be confirmed in the next couple of days or so.

v AFC Bournemouth

A couple of added midfield injuries / doubts for this game and when I look at my predicted bench so early on in the season and in a Premier League fixture no less; I think it highlights already just how thin our squad is, for now at least, when compared to previous seasons under Pep.

Imagine, therefore, if we lost Bernardo Silva in the coming days / weeks and didn’t replace him with similar quality by 1^st September?! It doesn’t bare thinking of for me, so moving on swiftly…

v AFC Bournemouth

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (possibly 2-7-1 at times):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Foden____________________________________Mahrez

_____________________________De Bruyne_________

_________Gundogan______________________________

 

_____________________Rodri______________________

Cancelo___________________________________Walker

_____________Ake______________Dias______________

 

 

____________________Ederson_____________________

Subs: Ortega, Wilson-Esbrand, Lewis, Stones, Silva, Knight, Grealish, Kayky, Alvarez.

Ederson continues in net.

Same back-4 as last Sunday, I reckon; that being Joao, Nathan, Ruben & Kyle. Well…I SAY “back-4” – it took some time staring at the pitch, in our last game, for me to work out what the formation was / where our wing-backs were and as the game developed; I found it to be more of a 2-7-1 a lot of the time; as we completely dominated the vast majority of the game. Depending on how our opponents set up today, we could see that deployed by Pep once again; after he admitted yesterday that it’s a tactic he’s used in the past against certain opposition when using a ‘number 9’ in his team.

Rodders to ‘sit deepest’ in midfield and ahead of him, I think we’ll see one ‘little tweak’ and one reward for a player who stepped into ‘the 11’ last Sunday. The adjustment comes in the form of Riyad in for Jack, with Phil moving over to the left flank. Kevin keeps his place and I think we’ll see Ilkay rewarded for a very good, 78-minute outing last weekend.

Erling to start once again and will be rubbing his hands in anticipation, I’m sure; hoping to add to his 2-goal league tally.

Stefan is the back-up keeper; Luke, Rico & John make up the defenders on the side. Bernardo, Ben, Jack & Kayky are the midfielders / wingers waiting to come on in ‘the 9’; Julian is the replacement striker in reserve.

Now…I could be wrong about Bernardo Silva starting on the bench once again – we could see him in ‘the 11’ instead of Riyad, Kevin OR Ilkay. I’m sure we all know about the links with and speculation regarding skint / borrowing Barca and although, generally speaking, Pep picks players according to the game in hand / who the oppo are; he has been known to pull a player back a little who has, possibly in this case we don’t know, expressed at least some desire to move on.

I don’t want to ‘bang on about this’ too much and more than I have already in a pre-match blog posting but I’d really like to know what Bernardo himself meant in one of his lines when he recently opened up in an interview about the speculation. He said, “My relationship with the club is very honest", adding, “I’ve been open with them and they know what I want”. What does he want, I wonder?

·         More money?

·         It surely can’t be more ‘game time’, could it?

·         Insisting on-being played in a certain position? Surely that would spell the end of his relationship with his manager.

·         Or…how about this – possibly saying that he will give us one more season of his very best as long as we agree to sell him in the summer of 2023 to the mighty Barcelona.

Anyway, that’s enough of that…

Notable absences:

-       Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.

-       Aymeric Laporte – Recovering from a knee injury / surgery. Expected return sometime in September.

-       Cole Palmer – Quite possibly out following a knock he received to his…feet (Pep might have meant foot, I dunno). Not sure if that occurred in training in midweek or whether I missed something in our last outing; when the 20-year-old appeared for the final 6 minutes of the game (injury time included). Doesn’t sound like a long-term injury - it’s possibly precautionary following last season’s long-term absence due to a foot injury. I hope so anyway – I hope this latest knock hasn’t aggravated / inflamed his last injury that the club were once considering surgery for…

-       Kalvin Phillips – It was also reported in our manager’s pre-match press conference that Kalvin Phillips has…”niggles” (the Spaniard seems to love that word); so much so that he will definitely miss this afternoon’s game, apparently.

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

Yep, I’d be happy with that.

Result? Our south-coast visitors got a crackin’ result in their first game back in the Premier League following promotion last season. A lot of reporters did appear to spend more time slating their visiting opponents, Aston Villa, for having a terrible game but still; that’s a good start for a side who…even their manager appeared concerned about with regards to the lack of summer recruitment.

And I’m sure they’ll put up a good fight today too – Scott Parker usually sends out an organised, hard-working side regardless of the “quality aspect”.

However, having said all of those nice things about The Cherries, this is a City win for me and once we slip into a higher gear and eventually grind Bournemouth down; I can see this one possibly being a high-scoring one for us too.

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Assuming you’re reading this in the UK, of course, would you believe me if I said it was gonna be hot? Flippin’ hot again, in fact! 30C (86F) minimum and unbroken sunshine once again is sure to feel way, WAY hotter than that both in the stands but especially on the pitch. I can’t see the 7MPH easterly breeze having any effect on-cooling the players down. Water breaks have been sanctioned for this weekend’s games and quite-rightly so. Suncream, shades and hats fans!

In other news…

We’ve all but signed Spanish Under-21 left-wing back / winger Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht; a player Pep has said will stay with the squad [rather than being loaned out] and compete for a place on the left, defensive flank with Joao Cancelo & Josh Wilson-Esbrand.

I might do a little piece on the lad next week and once the signing has been confirmed but from what I’ve both seen and read about him over the last couple of weeks, he’d be a good attacking left-wing option for us too and certainly adds more competition for that attacking position…

Solidarity