Leicester (a) Carabao Cup QF pre-match thread

Leicester City (a) Carabao Cup prediction

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.................Bravo....................
Danilo-Otamendi-Mangala-Zinchenko
.....Bernardo--Yaya--Gundogan......
......Sterling--Jesus--Brahim..........
 
The problem City have for this game is that it is arriving at the point where the fixture list is going to take its toll on the squad, especially since the 2nd XI is not as up to scratch as the 1st XI (Hence we need to buy in January, but that's for another thread). After all City have 3 Premier League Games (in 8 days) coming up till the end of the month, games that all have to be won if we are going to settle the title by the Manchester Derby game on the 7th of April (which we in turn need to do to stand a chance of also winning both the FA Cup and the Champions League) alongside the fact City will have to face 2 games a week for 3 out of the 4 weeks in January as well if we win this game (1).

So overall (regardless of the fact Leicester face an equally tough festive period themselves including facing United and Liverpool), Pep is going to have little choice but to gamble on the playing the Second XI (Although I would rather deploy Bernardo, Foden and Gundogan as our midfielders rather than include Yaya) and hope Leicester do the same. Even if it means having to give up on the Quadruple at this point of the season sadly.

(1) Likewise February is going to be equally as hard with with 3 out of 4 of weeks being 2 game weeks, assuming we win the 4th round of the FA Cup and the Semi Finals of the League Cup. March should be easier though with 2 out of 4 weeks being 2 game weeks (taking account of the International Break of course) assuming we win the 5th round of the FA Cup. Likewise as for April and March (assuming we have wrapped up the League come the Manchester Derby), should be easier in terms of fixtures, the only problem being the teams we face in those fixtures (these being the remaining rounds of the FA Cup and Champions League)
 
1Manchester said:
The problem City have for this game is that it is arriving at the point where the fixture list is going to take its toll on the squad, especially since the 2nd XI is not as up to scratch as the 1st XI (Hence we need to buy in January, but that's for another thread). After all City have 3 Premier League Games (in 8 days) coming up till the end of the month, games that all have to be won if we are going to settle the title by the Manchester Derby game on the 7th of April (which we in turn need to do to stand a chance of also winning both the FA Cup and the Champions League) alongside the fact City will have to face 2 games a week for 3 out of the 4 weeks in January as well if we win this game
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Two games per week is expected of players now, which is why silly injuries are such a major issue. At this point, it is not actual fatigue that concerns me, due to all the sports science involved, but the strains and pulls that occur when a player overreaches a fatigued muscle.

When I watched KDB sprinting his arse off at the end of the Spurs game, I was begging for him to come off! With Silva out indefinitely, losing KDB for 4-6 weeks would be a major blow at EXACTLY the wrong time. 11pts clear in 2018 is the goal from here. More is better, of course, but less only whets the appetite of the chasing pack, and 19 teams are now looking at their City game as their Cup Final!
 
Len Rum said:
KDBs injury in the semi of this competition in 2016 cost us the title that year.
Click to expand...

Revisionist nonsense.

Prior to that injury we:
lost at home to West Ham
lost away to Spurs 4-1
drew away at Villa
lost at home to Liverpool 4-1
lost 2-0 away to stoke
lost away at arsenal
drew away at unitd
drew at home to everton in league
lost away to everton in league cup
drew away 2-2 with west ham

KDB's injury had nothing whatsoever to do with us losing the league. We were miles off and just scraped 4th place. We finished 15 points off Leicester, 3 points ahead of Southampton, 4pts ahead of west ham. Against the bottom 3 relegated teams we managed 3 points from our away fixtures against them.

Would have made zero difference to our title aspirations had KDB not been injured. Zero.
 
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