Man City Travelling Squad for Shaktar Donetsk Revealed

Who is on the Plane?

Manchester City flew out to Ukraine on Sunday afternoon in preparation for their Champions League game at Shaktar Donetsk on Tuesday evening. There are plans to train in Ukraine to get match ready and to fulfill the regular media duties required by UEFA.

This game follows hot on the heels of the Premier League match at home to Burnley on Sunday and gives some indication of the relentless schedule afforded to these elite players. I know when I go on holiday I always enjoy the experience of the airport and the plane. But despite the comforts enjoyed by the players – first class travel with all the comforts which could possibly be conceived – none of the players seemed very happy in the pictures taken by fans at the airport.

Maybe its because they visited Ukraine just last season and have exhausted all of the holiday hang outs. I know I feel this way about Great Yarmouth.

What we know already is there are some injuries impacting upon the first team at this point in the season. Ilkay Gundogan is still out with no firm date set for a return. Fabian Delph has been sidelined for some weeks with a undefined muscle injury. Danilo picked up further ankle ligament damage in his most recent outing for Brazil, meaning he probably has more ankle injuries this season than first team appearances. Claudio Bravo is out for the season recovering from a serious achilles injury. Elaquim Mangala is probably inching towards a return from his cruciate ligament injury but no one will ever know, as he is the forgotten man of our side.

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These injuries probably mean much of the squad for the game picks itself. In addition to the squad available for the Burnley game there is Kyle Walker who was simply rested for the game due to returning from International duty with a slight injury.

Pep Guardiola is likely to treat the coming Shaktar Donetsk match as a final. He knows a result is important given the failure at home against Lyon. A win will almost certainly guarantee passage for Manchester City to the next round so in all likelihood Guardiola will seek to dominate this match. The next match after Shaktar is Tottenham Hotspur away on Monday week so Guardiola is unlikely to pick a side to play in Ukraine with any kind of eye on Spurs.

Therefore any last minute injuries dependent – I think Guardiola will start with a familar 4 -3 -3 formation made up of players he can rely upon and who have repeatedly delivered at the highest level. He has an advantage in that a number of his key players were rested against Burnley meaning they go into this game fresh.

In goal we will see Ederson and Muric will be on the bench. Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy will start as full backs. I think the game will see Aymeric Laporte and Nicolas Otamendi as Centre backs with Fernandinho occupying his familiar defensive midfield role against his former club.

Midfield will see our combination of David Silva and Bernardo, scampering around to break up play and Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Segio Aguero will make up the attack.

If everything goes according to plan then I would expect to see Kevin de Bruyne deployed again after 60 minutes and Gabriel Jesus added to utilise his relentless running to see the match out. Zinchenko, Stones, Foden and Mahrez will probably take up the remaining positions on the bench.

This will be a tricky game but one I hope Man City will enjoy – putting our trials in the Champions League behind us and setting us up nicely for the home match return in a couple of weeks.

Goalkeeper

Ederson

Defenders

Walker, Mendy, Laporte, Otamendi

Midfield

Fernandinho, Silva, Bernardo

Attack

Sane, Sterling, Aguero

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