49 hours after the elation of John Stones’ equaliser against Arsenal, Manchester City will be back in action against Watford.
Pep Guardiola and his players have slammed the various authorities for the circumstances that led to two games in three days – with UEFA, the EFL, Premier League, Sky Sports, TNT Sports and even Greater Manchester Police all involved in trying to find a solution to a farcial fixture clash.
Guardiola’s solution is to try and field a completely different XI to the one that faced Arsenal – with Kevin De Bruyne’s absence and Rodri’s injury uncertainty making that a more difficult task.
City cancelled an academy fixture set for Tuesday, allowing Guardiola to call upon some of the players he got a look at on tour when most of his senior options were still on holiday.
Starting with the first-teamers who didn’t face Arsenal, the likes of Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis, Matheus Nunes and James McAtee all remained on the bench and feel certain to start against Watford. Likewise, Jack Grealish and John Stones only played around 30 minutes, while Phil Foden could also start after his 70th-minute introduction against Arsenal.
Erling Haaland should get a full night off, so Foden can play as a false nine, with McAtee and Nunes in support. Nunes may have to play out wide to give someone like Bernardo Silva a much-needed rest.
In defence, Lewis and Stones will be needed, while Guardiola will have to decide if it is worth the risk to play Ruben Dias, Manu Akanji and Josko Gvardiol – with all three playing the last two games in five days. In Akanji’s case, he has played every minute of every game this season for club and country. And Gvardiol will be needed at left-back until Nathan Ake returns.
So Guardiola could call upon the academy, having given minutes to Youth Cup-winning captain Jahmai Simpson-Pusey over the summer, as well as the versatile Lakyle Samuel. Samuel could play at centre-back or right-back, potentially moving Lewis over to left-back. If either featured, it would represent a senior debut for both.
Jacob Wright and Nico O’Reilly have featured for the first team already and would be in contention to play – O’Reilly especially having been permanently promoted to the first team group this season.
And if Guardiola wants creativity on the wings without using Jeremy Doku or Savinho, he could call upon five-goal winger Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, who has started the season well including a goal at Manchester United over the weekend to follow a brace against Inter Milan in the Youth League. The confident German wasn’t on tour with Guardiola but is the in-form forward in the academy and is another yet to make his senior debut.
Elsewhere, Justin Oboavwoduo and Jaden Heskey have been the standout forwards in the academy over the last 12 months, and were both in Guardiola’s tour squad – if City are winning and need to bring players off, both could be options to make their first senior appearances.
Predicted Man City line up vs Watford: Ortega; Samuel, Stones, Simpson-Pusey, Lewis; Wright, O’Reilly, McAtee; Nunes, Foden, Grealish.
