As Qatar begins, the shorter first-third of City’s season comes to a premature end, with ten Premiership points out of forty-two dropped already…
This is a slightly worse start than in most previous seasons, but not too ominous given the integration of goalscoring superstar, Erling Haaland, into the mix, and the tactical adjustments that everyone has been making as a result…
I believe strongly that Haaland’s presence, added to a team that has already become the top group of goalscorers in England for several years under Pep, will ultimately lead to the sort of Prem dominance that Bayern have in Germany, PSG in France and Juventus in Italy…
And, consequently, nine out of ten Prem titles is now a possible outcome for Pep while making his Champions League pursuit more likely to succeed than ever…could this finally be the year ?
There’s little doubt that Sterling and Jesus were becoming surplus to requirements and had become squad players rather than first-eleven starters, as their goals tally dropped exponentially…
Whichever of first-choice Haaland, or the hugely underrated Alvarez, starts has added much more of a goalscoring threat regardless of who plays wide on the wings out of Foden, Grealish, Mahrez and Silva (when he’s not dominating midfield alongside the world-class KdeB)
First choice front-three against the lesser teams is probably left to right:Grealish, Haaland and Foden…but in the big games Pep seems more secure with Foden on the left and Silva on the right, drafting Gundogan into midfield….
And Phillips will add even more midfield backup strength when finally fit, particularly for the incomparable Rodri who cannot play every game… there is now also the possibility of Phillips playing alongside and slightly forward of Rodri like he does just in front of Declan Rice when on England duty…
Bellingham seems the obvious replacement for Gundogan or Silva if either leaves at the end of the season…I suspect City will be ready to break the bank for him and probably exceed the Grealish numbers…however, Silva is almost irreplaceable and personally, I’d be devastated to see him go…
And of course, both Alvarez and KdeB can play wide right as well…plenty of options…Mahrez, whose form has suffered an alarming dip, is the biggest loser and he may be replaced eventually by a big-name younger signing like Saka…
Defensively, Gomez does not yet seem like an upgrade on Zinchenko, as backup for Cancelo, who can uniquely cover both full-back roles…and I’m not as excited by Akanji as some…he seems to lack that extra yard of pace and is occasionally prone to simple errors…
While, like Stones, he can provide useful cover for Walker at right back, Akanji may ultimately struggle to start the big games where Dias and Laporte have able back-ups in Stones and Ake respectively…he remains invaluable however given the injury records of all the centre-backs.