City at Newcastle – COC

City at Newcastle in the League Cup (IN Old Money)

Having thought about it a win tonight and we are through to the Quarter Final of the League Cup (IN Old Money), and that’s one step away from another semi final, we have come a long way in a very short space of time.

We travel to Newcastle with this being the 4th of a series of 4 away games in a row, and by my reckoning we should have had a result of some sort out of all of the 3 games played so far, so much for an away form crisis, not in my book. As a friend of mine said in the aftermath of the game at Chelsea on Sunday “shit happens”, this friend is spot on and we are deluding ourselves if we expect to bull doze every team in every game, it won’t happen. I said my piece about the Chelsea game in my last posting and my view remains the same.

Tonight, for me, is a chance to see what the other “fringe” members of the squad can do, and a chance for a rest from the hurly burly for the regular starters. I saw yesterday a photograph of Yaya Toure in Nairobi promoting a worthy cause to save elephants, so it’s unlikely that he will play a huge part in the game tonight. This is a chance to stake a claim for the first team for players like Milner, Rodwell, Jovetic and Lescott.

I think we will see a different starting 11 tonight and rightly so. In goal (irrespective of recent form or not) I would have always expected Costel Pantilimon to start (this will cause a media frenzy I’m sure), but I’m sure he’s been given the nod that he will start in the cup games this season. At right back I think that Micah Richards will play again as he continues his rehabilitation (if he is fit of course), he is better at RB than CB in my view, but I wouldn’t worry either way in this game. The CB pairing will be the same as against Wigan, with Dedryck Boyata partnering Joleon Lescott. I did think about maybe giving Demichaelis another run out but decided that two games in 3 days after a long injury layoff is asking a bit much. The left back will be Kolorov, who is probably thinking he can win back his regular starting birth with the slight dip in form shown by Gael Cliché.

In midfield we will see (I hope) Jack Rodwell and James Milner as a central pairing, I think we need to see how they play together in these positions but it is a good chance to test fitness (Rodwell) and get game time in a central role which he likes (Milner). I suspect that we will see David Silva start on the bench tonight alongside Yaya and Fernandinho, which means that both Nasri and Navas will be in the team to provide the invention. I was tempted to throw the youngster Lopes in to one of the wider midfield positions but I believe he is injured, shame if he is but as I said before “shit happens”. If Rodwell doesn’t make the starting line up I would expect Javi Garcia to keep his place in Central Midfield, but only if Rodwell isn’t fully match fit.

Tonight is a perfect chance for the manager to pick Stefan Jovetic, I had expected to see him well before now after his display against Wigan and his International appearances told us that he was over his injury, but I can be persuaded that he’s not fully match fit yet. He is an exciting player and one that I think the City fans wish to see more of, as clearly he can play either right up top or behind the main striker to cause a bit of havoc. I hope he gets picked tonight I really do.

I know that Aguero has been prolific in recent weeks and has been on sparkling form but I suspect that he will get a rest tonight, and that the final striking role will be between Negredo and Dzeko. I think Negredo is going to become a City fan favourite very soon has he plays the game the right way, with loads of determination and no little skill. He’s bagged a good few goals as well this season so far. I expect the manager to pick Dzeko, he will need game time and I think he has had enough starts from the bench for the manager to punt for him to start tonight. I would want him to play right at the top of the team and let Jovetic do the dropping off and cause havoc in the centre of what looks to be a depleted back four for Newcastle.

I think that Newcastle will look upon this as an opportunity to progress in a Cup competition and play a strong team, but who knows what goes on behind the scenes at Newcastle and in the mind of their manager. One things for sure it should be a decent game with two teams looking to try to win the game, maybe that’s the kiss of death from me and it will be a rubbish game, lets hope not.

I do think City are moving forward under Pellegrini and that one or two individual errors have been costly, but that’s life and that’s football and I’m sure there will be lots of ups and downs before we get to the end of the season. I for one fancy (yet) another trip to Wembley, so come on City lets give it a good go.