I, along with thousands of other fans, will be royally pissed off if Pep picks a shit side and we get a performance like the Southampton game and are soundly beaten, in our only hope of a trophy this season. I know I'll get stick for saying a shit side but everybody knows what I mean by that. Sub standard compared to.our first eleven. It will be the last time I fork out hundreds of pounds to go to Wembley if our manager chooses a first eleven that finishes our chances of actually winning the thing. We've suffered such displays against Wigan and more shamefully against the rags, enough is enough.
As for rest, we actually play worse the more rest we have.
I wish that I had any idea of what our "first eleven" is at the moment - I have absolutely no idea. I have no idea what Pep perceives as his first eleven either - I'm not sure that he knows what it is either.
Not so long ago, KDB, Haaland, Foden, Bernardo, Gundo and Grealish would have been there. Nunes, O'Reilly, Kusanov, Gonzalez, Doku and Savinho weren't in the picture. Now, we have the balancing act - with Lewis and Macatee - + Ortega for Ederson as a possibility - coming in.
Akanje, Dias and Gvardiol - what shall we do with those three? Who should I be faithful to?
O'Reilly?
Fuck it; just start Rodri, Ecceveri and Oscar Bobb - stop worrying!!!
I said in an earlier post that I'm not going to even think about the selection. Pep will do what he does and none of us can predict it - I defy anyone to predict the right "First eleven."
We turn up there on Saturday and - as ever - we shout our City songs loud and long, and trust that whoever wears the sky blue shirt to gets the job done.
And, breathe....!