Brown Nose
Well-Known Member
Our FA Cup defence begins with us facing a former hero (if he's still there next week) with a decimated squad of players.
Based on BRs press conference, we can write off the following players for this game: Justin, Fofana, Soyuncu, Evans, Amartey, Ricardo, Benkovic, Ndidi, Mendy, Vardy, Iheanacho and Daka.
If we don't sustain further injuries or lose anyone to illness - and that's a big if - we will have the following 15 players to select from, not including the kids:
Schmeichel, Ward, Bertrand, Vestergaard, Castagne, Thomas, Barnes, Tielemans, Maddison, Albrighton, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall, Soumare, Perez, Lookman.
That's two keepers, four defenders (three of them being full backs), nine midfielders and no strikers.
PL rules say if you have 14 players from your main squad list, you have to play. Not sure whether the FA Cup has similar rules or not. We're definitely going to be on the edge of postponing games through January given BR doesn't expect any of those currently unavailable to be back until late January at the earliest.
My guess is that there will be a battle on between City and the PL through January as the league want us to play matches, including rearranged fixtures in blank midweeks, whilst we want to keep those gaps free and cancel already scheduled matches. I honestly don't think it's a stretch to imagine us not playing any matches in January. All it needs is another minor Covid outbreak and we're fecked.
Based on BRs press conference, we can write off the following players for this game: Justin, Fofana, Soyuncu, Evans, Amartey, Ricardo, Benkovic, Ndidi, Mendy, Vardy, Iheanacho and Daka.
If we don't sustain further injuries or lose anyone to illness - and that's a big if - we will have the following 15 players to select from, not including the kids:
Schmeichel, Ward, Bertrand, Vestergaard, Castagne, Thomas, Barnes, Tielemans, Maddison, Albrighton, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall, Soumare, Perez, Lookman.
That's two keepers, four defenders (three of them being full backs), nine midfielders and no strikers.
PL rules say if you have 14 players from your main squad list, you have to play. Not sure whether the FA Cup has similar rules or not. We're definitely going to be on the edge of postponing games through January given BR doesn't expect any of those currently unavailable to be back until late January at the earliest.
My guess is that there will be a battle on between City and the PL through January as the league want us to play matches, including rearranged fixtures in blank midweeks, whilst we want to keep those gaps free and cancel already scheduled matches. I honestly don't think it's a stretch to imagine us not playing any matches in January. All it needs is another minor Covid outbreak and we're fecked.
