Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City and players react following the team's defeat during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Ma...
Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City and players react following the team's defeat during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Ma...
Manchester City have another chance to get their 2024/25 season back on track this week.
Following on from their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield – which gave City their fourth consecutive Premier League defeat – the Blues will be taking on Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
In terms of what the Premier League table looks like heading into this midweek round of fixtures, the champions are in fifth place, just one point above Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
With this clash at the Etihad Stadium in mind, let’s take a look at what the City starting XI could look like for this midweek outing.
READ MORE:Man City Premier League fixture list for 2024/25 season in full
(THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Pep Guardiola manager of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester C...
Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Man City predicted XI vs Nottingham Forest
Sunday’s defeat at Anfield saw Stefan Ortega start his first league match of the campaign.
Even though Pep Guardiola hinted that the German could continue in goal, a return to action for Ederson against Forest wouldn’t surprise many City supporters.
At right-back, with Kyle Walker getting exposed again against Liverpool, this could force Guardiola into giving Manuel Akanji the chance to do a better job than the City captain.
For the two centre-back roles, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias are likely to feature again, especially since Guardiola revealed John Stones is not close to making a return from injury.
Then in the left-back position, Josko Gvardiol will likely be called back into the XI after being an unused substitute at Anfield.
Moving into the midfield, Ilkay Gundogan is a safe option to pick due to the continued absences of Rodri and Mateo Kovacic.
In his pre-Forest press conference, Guardiola said Kevin De Bruyne is feeling “even better” than he has done throughout his extensive recovery period. Therefore, Wednesday could finally be the opportunity for the midfielder to get back into the starting XI and make an impact for his side.
Someone else who will be desperate to make an impact is Jack Grealish. However, rather than occupy his usual left-wing position, Wednesday could see Guardiola make a big tactical switch and allow the Englishman to feature in an attacking-midfield role.
In fact, after the Liverpool defeat, Guardiola discussed Grealish in a midfield role, saying this on the possibility.
He said: Jack in the middle, I am thinking can help us to have that control, that vision to the final third.”
Moving onto the attacking positions, while Erling Haaland is likely to be the first name on the teamsheet, Guardiola could bring in Jeremy Doku and Savinho either side of the striker after the wingers made second-half cameos against Liverpool.