I’ve found that the answer to the question in the title depends largely on your point of view after the game has finished. If you’ve been victorious, then it’s a trophy worth winning and a psychological advantage of one of your rivals. If the game doesn’t go your way, it’s a friendly, minutes in the legs and instantly forgotten about as soon as the final whistle goes. Just don’t mention that last part to Viktor Gyokeres, unless you want to receive a hard stare and a snarky comment!
Line-up
There are some positions where I feel the team picks itself at this stage, but the further forward you go, the more trickier it becomes. The questions where I really feel like there’s a place up for grabs are on the right wing, attacking midfield and up top. I think Max Dowman has done enough to keep his place on the right hand side of our attack, as Noni Madueke didn’t exactly pull up any trees against Como 1907 during his cameo and Bukayo Saka is extremely unlikely to start (I personally don’t think he’ll even make the bench) so Dowman has earned his place to lay down a marker for the season.
Up front is more of a straight shootout between Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyokeres and we all know how much the boss loves Big Kai, so this is only going one way for me.
That just leaves the attacking midfield berth, which you could argue is a three way battle between Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze and Ethan Nwaneri, but despite his recent strong performances, I think Ethan will be lucky to get onto the bench now that everyone is back. Out of Eze and Odegaard, I think this one goes down to the Manager’s favourites again and to be fair, he’s also got an extra week’s training under his belt, so the Skipper will take this spot as well.
Then the question is, who doesn’t make the bench, as we’ve got quite a bloated squad if everyone is back. The players that haven’t played a single minute of pre-season will surely miss out, which includes Martin Zubimendi, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice. Rice might just sneak on there, due to it him being an absolute football machine, but the other two will definitely miss out.
Then the decisions get a bit tougher as some players who have been with the group for a couple of weeks, are likely to have to watch this one from the sidelines. Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson all seem to have their future elsewhere so will step aside for this one, but I think Marli Salomon should make it, given our lack of defenders.
David Raya
Ben White
Cristhian Mosquera
Gabriel
Riccardo Calafiori
Myles Lewis-Skelly
Bruno Guimaraes
Martin Odegaard
Max Dowman
Kai Havertz
Christos Tzolis
Subs:
Arrizabalaga
Hincapie
Salmon
Nwaneri
Rice
Merino
Gyokeres
Madueke
Eze
Overall thoughts on the game
Obvious stuff out of the way to start – I REALLY want to win this one. Friendly talk aside, I do love seeing the players lifting silverware above their heads and to do that at the expense of Manchester City would be all the sweeter. That said, I am really worried about whether or not we’re ready for a tie against a team of their calibre, so I’m more than a bit nervous about how we’ll get on. We started really strong against Como 1907, without breaking through initially, so if they start like this again, I’m hopeful we can get our noses in front and then try to lean into what we do best and defend the lead. Let’s see.
I’m looking forward to seeing…
Really interested to see how Christos Tzolis gets on today. With respect to the teams we’ve played in pre-season so far, we’ve yet to see Tzolis against a really top outfit so I’m really hoping he can bring his positive pre-season into this game and kick-on. I’m not sure who plays right back for City these days, but I’d imagine it’s someone half decent, so he’s in for a tough game.
Prediction
Going to be a tough afternoon, but I have to back the boys and say we’ll do enough to come away with ‘The Shield’ and take this one 1-0.
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