SO glad to have a football match to talk about again. And a big'un as well.
Could be a cracker. I see Bobby is starting tonight in Brazil and with this an early kickoff Saturday, I wonder if Sturridge might get the nod to start. Do Mane and Salah have games tonight as well?
Yeah after playing a couple of times a week and playing well too these breaks are horrible. Haven't watched a single international match, they really don't interest me at all. I know some will say you can see how people like AOC are doing etc but I don't find international form, especially England, translates to club football. Gerrard used to look pretty ordinary in a lot of England games and then bossed it for us the games either side so those that are jumping on Alex's back because of it might want to let the lad run out for us first before we cast any judgements.
With regards City, this is obviously one of our tougher games and also the circumstances; on the back of internationals; privately flying Coutinho back, meaning very little training to solve the obvious issues his transfer saga has caused. Having said that I still believe we'll come away with at least a draw, anything better and of course we'll be tanking along.
I'd start Coutinho, as good as our 3 midfield looked against Arsenal we mustn't lose sight of the fact that Arsenal were also extremely poor, which I don't expect City to be. I'm not sure Jürgen will have such an easy time with that decision though, while of course he'll look to reintegrate him into the first team quickly, immediately could send the wrong message to the other lads. This is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't scenarios in my opinion because there are so many things which could go wrong with it, even Coutinho scoring the winner might not reflect so well on the boss, that he simply has to do what he deems right above all else. FWIW I think he'll start him, City are a title favourite for a reason and if we can get 3 points there then it'll obviously boost our chances and dent there's tremendously, but at the same time it'll send a real message to the rest of the league.
Mig
Gomez Matip Lovren Moreno
Henderson
Can Coutinho
Salah Firmino Mane
Away from home I think it should be Gini that misses out from those two, harsh on the lad judged on only the last game, but judged on his away performances this season, and last, then it's more than justified.
3-1 to the Redmen.
Logged