Welcome back to ‘bread ‘n’ butter’ league football, following a summer of both club and international tournaments.
Speaking of which, a massive well done to our England Under-21 lads for winning the UEFA European Under-21 Championship and, in particular, our very own (for now) James McAtee who had a fantastic tournament; captained the side and won MotM in the final against Germany.
Thanks for joining me for this opening pre-match blog posting in what is the start of my 13th full season of Blue chews-daze ! 😲
Wow…where does the time go?
Having very recently returned from a week’s holiday, I’ll get straight to it…
v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Molineux Stadium
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was ourF.A. Cupfinal defeat toCrystal Palaceway back on 17th May: A not-so-good, 6/11).
First game of the season and with plenty of options in all departments = plenty of room for error here…
*A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):*
____________________Haaland____________________
__Doku_________________________________Cherki__
_________Reijnders_____________Silva©___________
____________________ Gonzalez ___________________
Ait-Nouri__________________________________Lewis
___________Stones_____________Dias (VC) __________
____________________Ederson____________________
**Subs:**Trafford, Akanji, Ake, Rodri, Gundogan, O’Reilly, Foden, Bobb, Marmoush.
I would say of the two keepers likely to involved in today’s matchday squad, Ederson 'gets the nod' over new-signing, James. This comes after our manager was asked yesterday who was his Number 1 keeper and he said, "Right now, Eddie".
With plenty of options on the left and centre of our defence, I’m going for a back-4 of Rayan-A-, John, Ruben and Rico to start.
Nico-G- is our defensive midfield starter and ahead of the Spanish Under-21 midfielder I’m going for Jeremy, Tijjani, Barnardo and Rayan-C-.
Erling up front.
James is our reserve stopper for this game; Manuel and Nathan provide defensive cover from the side. Rodders, who we are told needs to build minutes slowly in order to protect a leg in need of more strengthening and monitoring following a year’s absence and surgery, is likely to get a place on the bench and is likely also to be joined by midfielders Ilkay, Nico-O- and Phil. Oscar and Omar provide both width and striking options from ‘the 9’.
Notableabsences:
-Stefan Ortega– Not selected and is likely to be leaving us before the end of the summer transfer window.
-Abdukodir Khusanov – Not selected.
-Josko Gvardiol– Injured. Unknown injury or return date but I got the impression that it wasn’t serious and won’t be long.
-Kalvin Phillips– Not selected. News of a move out, highly likely on loan for a third time, appears to be stalling / hitting stumbling blacks.
-Mateo Kovacic– Making slow recovery following surgery on an Achilles injury some months ago. Unknown return date.
-Matheus Nunes– Not selected.
-James McAtee– Not selected and is apparently very close to agreeing a permanent transfer out.
-Claudio Echeverri – I’m assuming that he is still injured following a foot injury in the USA in June, which we’ve had no update on. Negotiations are also in full flow to loan the Argentine attacker out for the season; with the player himself apparently wanting a big say in where he goes.
-Savinho– Sustained an injury in our last pre-season game in Sicily. The exact nature of the injury isn’t clear butPep said on 15th August that the Brazilian would be out for a couple of weeks. The 21-year-old is also being touted for a possible permanent move away from the club; with our next opponents, Spurs, being linked the most.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Midfield upwards I have no concerns whatsoever. In fact, I’m excited to see how it looks.
However, as much as I have to see it as improvement to our squad; Rayan Ait-Nouri IS a specialist left-wing back but another who is more attack minded than defensive. We’ve still to resolve / improve the right-wing back situation too and in John and Ruben, should they start this evening (5:30pm KO BST ), we have a player who is very fragile and has been MIA for the best part of three seasons alongside a player who lacks ‘get out of trouble’ pace. The latter also had a few errors in him both last season and pre-season.
Apart fromTHAT…yeah, good.
Result?
Opening games of the season are so hard to predict.
According to sources, Wolves haven’t had the strongest of transfer windows so far and have, in fact, been weakened considerable both in defence and attack. Their best signing, it would seem, was to make strikerJorgen Strand Larsen’s loan a permanent move on 1st July. The 6’ 4” Norwegian forward does carry a threat.
They have signed a largely right-sided Colombian winger calledJhon Arias from Brazilian side,Fluminense, and he’s described as a player with a low-centre of gravity who likes to dribble past his opposing defenders. The main defender who is likely to be facing the 5’ 7”, 27-year-old is Rayan Ait-Nouri.
I think I’m right in saying that our hosts didn’t have a very good pre-season in terms of results, with no wins from six outings, but they appear to have come out of it unscathed. There’s only one long-term injury on the list for the team in gold ‘n’ black.
As for us, we’re in very good shape and appear to be moulding our new-look, midfield attacking force nicely. I think we’ll see much faster build-up play from our team this season but it may take a few weeks to properly click.
Yes, I still have some doubts about us defensively and I’m likely to speak more about that once the transfer window has closed.🤞 for news on a specialist right-wing back but I’ve have to be honest and say that I’m doubtful we’ll see a new face in that position.
All things considered we may concede later today but if we do, I think we’ll score more than the home side. It’s a City win for me.
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 :It’s another scorcher. 24 / 25C feels closer to 27C outside the stadium but it’s sure to feel closer to 30C (84F) on the pitch. Apparently, the main trigger for a Premier League official to call for water breaks for the players is a temperature of 30C so we might see one of those in either or each half.☀😎🌭🍺⚽
Solidarity