Brentford (H) - Wed 17th Dec, 19:30 | EFL Cup | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction?

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bell_mcfc said:
Cant work this one out. Pep speaking about rotation but also how he wants to win it whilst saying West Ham game is more important.

He said Trafford starts but no other names. Maybe an academy heavy bench but still think it will be fairly strong. Wouldn't be surprised to see Tijjani tried somewhere else.

McAdioo, Sangare, Braithwaite & J. Heskey all didnt play the full EDS game against Madrid, Mukasa and Mfuni didnt feature at all so will be involved.

Trafford

Nunes Khusanov Dias Ake

Lewis Bernie
Reijdners

Bobb Haaland Savio
Click to expand...
Surely Pep can rotate against West Ham?
 
...........Trafford
Khusanov ...stones... givadiol/dias (one half each)... ake
.......reijnnerds...lewis
bobb....Cherki... savinho
......mukasa
This team will give rest to two nicos haaland plus have a good spine.
One thing lacking is physicality in midfield
 
himalayan_blues said:
...........Trafford
Khusanov ...stones... givadiol/dias (one half each)... ake
.......reijnnerds...lewis
bobb....Cherki... savinho
......mukasa
This team will give rest to two nicos haaland plus have a good spine.
One thing lacking is physicality in midfield
Click to expand...
Stones is injured
 
Cigs&Alc said:
Surely Pep can rotate against West Ham?
Click to expand...
That's a recipe for disaster. Looks like West Ham pushed Villa hard on Sunday and their performances under Santo have been steadily improving. That usually means at some tome they will catch someone out - I'd rather we take the risk of a rotated squad in the League Cup than in the league.
 
Some seem willing to risk the season for a league cup semi.

We are not deep in the competition: it's 6 games including the final, we have played 2 games. Our next opponents might be Arsenal (2 legs) and Chelsea... Give us 60% chance to win the semi and 60% chance to win the final. That's 36% chance to win the league cup IF we win vs Brentford. The feeling we'll be close to winning the cup if we win vs Brentford is a bit optimistic.

That said, I'm confident the squad players will be good tonight, better than expected. They are not defined by one game (Leverkusen). City to win.
 
Last edited:
West Ham is absolutely the priority so a big rotation is definitely going to happen. It will be interesting to see how much Brentford rotate because they aren’t doing well in the league and they’ve got a big game away at Wolves on Saturday. If Brentford also make several changes then we will be fine. Our second string will be better than theirs…..
 
I get why we need to rotate, but as we have seen in the past, it’s not always going to work the following game. Think we are better when playing every few days.
 
All about rotation tonight, but with a core that ensures we get to the semi finals. This side could do with the boost of winning a trophy. We've got a large number of players who haven't won any honours and the league cup has always been a useful stepping stone to bigger prizes - giving them a taste of what it's like and leaving them wanting more.

The fixtures are coming thick and fast but I think we've done pretty well with only two being away over the festive period and the opportunity to rest in some of them. I think we can go and beat West Ham, Sunderland (with players at the AFCON) and Brighton with a few changes and be full strength for Forest and Chelsea.

17th Brentford H (League Cup)
20th West Ham H
27th Forest A
1st Sunderland A
4th Chelsea H
7th Brighton H
10th Exeter H (FA Cup)
 
I’m not sure this competition will exist in 10 years.

For me it’s a free hit. I want City to win every game and it’s a great chance for fringe players to get us to a cup final and get minutes under their belt.

If we lose then we haven’t wasted too much time trying to get to the final and we have fresh legs for West Ham which is much more important as Pep freely says these days.

The result might depend on how much Brentford want it.
 
The Leverkusen game showed that without experience the players do not have the personality to play on their own. Pep said this in his pre-match press conference.

I expect the side will include Trafford, Rico, Khusanov, Ake, Bobb, Savinho, Mukasa but we need a small number of experienced players, or players with the personality to play. We could for example play a couple of experienced players in each half e.g., Cherki/Foden and Gonzalez/O'Reilly in the 1st half/2nd half. and name a strong bench including Haaland.
 
Cobwebcat said:
I’m not sure this competition will exist in 10 years.

For me it’s a free hit. I want City to win every game and it’s a great chance for fringe players to get us to a cup final and get minutes under their belt.

If we lose then we haven’t wasted too much time trying to get to the final and we have fresh legs for West Ham which is much more important as Pep freely says these days.

The result might depend on how much Brentford want it.
Click to expand...
Brentford have got Wolves away at the weekend. That is a must win game for them. I am expecting them to rotate as well.
 
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