Manchester City look set to be without two star players for their trip to Newcastle this weekend as Rodri has been ruled out for a significant length of time while Kevin De Bruyne is a major doubt.
Newcastle were terrible against Fulham and things won’t be getting any easier for us on Saturday as we face the Premier League champions at St James’ Park, but there is still hope.
Rodri has been a huge part of City’s recent success and it’s safe to say they are a lot more vulnerable without him – of their 21 games played in the league without him they have lost a third of them (7/21)
Reports suggest the Spaniard could miss the remainder of the season with an ACL injury after falling awkwardly in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Etihad.
De Bruyne also showed his quality in City’s comeback in the North East last season as the visitors trailed 2-1 until the Belgian star was subbed on only to score the equaliser and assist Oscar Bobb’s winner.
Of course, Pep Guardiola has a team full of star players and far more quality than Eddie Howe has available to him, even without Rodri and De Bruyne, but it will give the Magpies just a little bit of boost heading into the game.
They will need to sort themselves out before looking at any perceived boosts.
Joseph(Quote)
Fair enough comment about Man City star absentees, but I’m nothing like as worried about the opposition, as I am about us. I was really looking forward to taking Man City on, but the unremitting dreadfulness of every single one of our performances this season mean I’m thinking of accepting reality – seeing is believing, and we actually have imploded. We have the same manager and the same players (with a little extra) but we are nowhere near the team we were. Nowhere remotely near, sadly.
davewallace(Quote)
I said before the season that we would have a media-dubbed “flirt with relegation/looking nervously over our shoulders/oh my God look at their run-in” in a Crystal Palace style before ending up safe enough with the 44-45 points we used to get under Bruce and Benitez and a 13th position. I still have seen no reason to change that opinion.
Next time you watch Newcastle, change your mindset for a minute and imagine you’re watching any other game as a neutral. We’re rubbish aren’t we? Dull, pedestrian, uninspired. We don’t even flatter to deceive. We are what we are. Poor. Aston Villa, Brighton, Fulham and even Nottingham Forest are much better to watch. By far.
Remember when Howe “lost his mojo” at Bournemouth and they plummeted, with him claiming not to know what to do anymore and eventually resigning of his own accord. The same thing is happening to us.
Howe is clearly a good manager, but he is not a great manager. Emery is. If only…..
The Panther(Quote)