Aston Villa (A) - Sat 21st Dec, 12:30 | PL | Pre-Match Thread

[the blue panther]

11 subs allowed in a game - is this a new City rule for this weekend? ;-)

I like this! I think he's on to something here.
It's brilliant; sub the starters, then sub the sub's.
Why can't Pep think outside the box like this?

 

[B\connellblue]

Well rested for this one. Routine victory.

 

[youngbob]

Team does look a lot better in my head with the prospect of Stones and Kovacic coming back into this.

Ortega
Walker, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol
Kovacic
Foden, Grealish
Bernardo, Haaland, Doku

Hopefully we can nick a point.

 

[toffee balls]

Bit harsh that, mate! He's out of form, but I think our problems are a bit more deep rooted than whether or not Rico Lewis plays.

Yep , I know.

Pep is hanging him out to dry though.

The fact remains, if we continue to use him in the engine room , this decline will not level out soon.

 

[ninjamonkey]

I’m not a Grealish fan boy by any stretch of the imagination but one thing he would never do in that environment is hide. He relishes it.

Did you see him against Ireland? While Declan Rice was trying to dampen down the hostilities Jack scored and gave it the biggun to the fans who had been abusing him all game.

It's not that I think he'd hide, its the little needless reactions to a slightly full on challenge that will get the crowd and the opposition riled up and even more up for a battle, we've shown over the last 2 months, we are not equipped for a battle and him on the pitch gets the fans 2 notches more up for it.

It's a shame you've put that team selection up and are still expecting a possible mauling. I'm not saying you're wrong either pal. Ordinarily we'd be thinking that team's more than capable of doing a job at a ground we usually do ok, last season apart. Incredible to think it's got to this stage in a 2 month timeframe, sad really.

Totally get what you're saying and agree although that team i offered is more what I'd want to see with a style we haven't seen all season bar maybe glimpses of it in the first couple of games rather than what I'm expecting.

Stones may play so if so Nunes can sit on the bench too and I’d swap Walker for Rico only for the reason that Walker is a mess at the minute.

Got a feeling stones is nowhere near ready and was on the bench purely as a 5 minute option to do a job. His return if genuinely fit would be a boost, I'd be putting him at right back ahead of both walker and Lewis though. Nunes is by no means the answer at fullback but he looked a better option than both of those 2 imo, with Lewis currently being a slightly bigger liability than walker.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Even though I'll be at work and not be able to watch, even though you will probably lose, cmon boys, cmon city, all the way.