John Stones and Manuel Akanji are injury doubts for Manchester City against Chelsea
Facing Manchester City under Pep Guardiola is never an exciting prospect but that’s what Chelsea will have to do the coming weekend as they look to keep the momentum going after winning against Tottenham Hotspur 4-1.
Two of their first-choice names being injured is an advantage for sure but that is not going to affect Man City in any manner. They have a squad well rounded to mitigate such injury issues. Just look at the fact that they have hardly missed Kevin de Bruyne despite his absence since the beginning of the season.
Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino have been on and off this campaign. They started off very poorly, then showed some improvement and since then, their form has been very uneven. The Blues need to start showing some consistency.
That is a difficult thing to achieve against Manchester City but definitely not impossible. For all their might, the Pep Guardiola-led team are not invincible as Arsenal and Wolves have already shown us this season. We need to take a leaf out of their book.
This isn’t the first time Mauricio Pochettino will be facing Pep Guardiola and he will know exactly what to expect from the Spanish tactician. It’s one thing to know what to expect but it’s a whole other thing to be able to control their relentless onslaught though
Ahead of their clash against Chelsea, Manchester City duo John Stones and Manuel Akanji suffered issues in their midweek Champions League encounter and here is what Pep Guardiola had to say about them (h/t Football. London)
“Well, Manu [Akanji] had a problem in his back. It happened in training, he looks like he 75 years old. John felt it again. I feel so sorry for him. It’s a big loss for us. John is so important for what he does.”
Pep Guardiola seemed to hint that he might look for players within the squad who can play the John Stones role. He hinted at minutes for Kalvin Phillips, a player who has hardly featured in his time at the Manchester club.
John Stones is very crucial to Manchester City just for what he brings to the table. In Football Manager parlance, he is the Libero who starts in central defence but moves into midfield to form a double pivot with Rodri and he is exceptional in that position.
While Phillips can definitely be a part of a double pivot, the question is whether he can track back and help out defensively like Stones does. The other option would be to play Ake or Akanji and expect them to do the same thing that Stones does but neither of them have as much quality in midfield. Pep is known for being innovative and let’s wait and see what he does for us.
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