Newcastle v MAN CITY – The PREVIEW: City’s Probable Team
16 Aug
The waiting is over. Premier League action returns and City will take to the field as reigning champions, determined to hold onto their crown and achieve what only two clubs have done previously by retaining the title. It promises to be a challenging ask, hindered in the short-term at least by a demanding opening few games to the campaign. First up is a trip to face Newcastle.
Manuel Pellegrini has a selection dilemma with his choice of goalkeeper. Willy Caballero, who arrived in the summer from Malaga and has the trust of the manager, was given the gloves in the Community Shield against Arsenal and impressed in pre-season, but whilst the battle between the Argentine and Joe Hart is expected to be fiercely contested, the England number one is likely to be awarded the first chance to impress on Sunday.
Ahead of him, neither Pablo Zabaleta nor Bacary Sagna featured at all in pre-season, but one of them will probably be selected tomorrow, with Aleks Kolarov on the other side of the back four. Eliaquim Mangala has been ruled out of this fixture, so the centre-back pairing will be two from the trio of Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis and Matija Nastasic.
Fernandinho is another who has only just returned after World Cup duty so he could start life on the bench, with recent acquisition Fernando taking his place alongside Yaya Touré. Samir Nasri and David Silva are near-certainties in their attacking midfield roles, and with Alvaro Negredo injured and Sergio Aguero lacking match fitness, the forward pairing could be Stevan Jovetic and Edin Dzeko.
Here is the side Pellegrini could select:
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Prediction: Newcastle 1 - 2 MAN CITY – Having suffered a disjointed pre-season due to the World Cup, it might be a slightly scratchy City that begin the campaign. In defence, there will be a distinct lack of match sharpness, but the likes of Nasri and Jovetic are fresh and should enjoy stamping their mark on proceedings. It may well be a little tense, but I’ll back the Blues to grab a narrow victory, with goals to be scored by Moussa Sissoko, Stevan Jovetic and Edin Dzeko.
I think you have that bang on. With everyone fit and flying it isn’t the team the managers first choice selection but match fitness is a major issue. He has a terrific 22 man squad, none of whom would cause qualms if selected (no offence Dedryck but that doesn’t include you).
Its three o’ clock on the firt day of the season and its looking good already, and we haven’t kicked a ball in anger yet
Well, a win will do nicely for me. Given the disjointed weave the team is in now, getting the maximum points is all that matters. Somewhere across the Etihad, a team is rueing their opening game. Wouldn’t want to be part of the mix
Like the team selection. This should be good enough to put the bar-codes away. Kun may make a cameo just to get a run out after 75 mins I think.
I think Navas would start in place of Nasri
I would prefer to play the formation we did during the last games of the previous season with Merlin at the no.10 role and Dzeko up front.
Would go for Kompany and Demichelis at the back because of their amazing understanding of each other’s play.
Prediction: Tough 0-2 win
At last…THIS IS IT! team is not ready yet, we need at least a month before we will be ready but hopefully we will get the 3 points today as the upcoming fixtures are way more difficult. I think you got the team right. Let’s hope Jovetic and Dzeko will be up for it from day 1.
Ok…good luck everyone and let’s hope in 9 months we will be celebrating!
COME ON CITY!!!!
well done wise guy
Hahaha, thanks man glad we won