Manchester City continue their UEFA Champions League campaign as they welcome Bayer Leverkusen to the Etihad Stadium.
The Blues are reeling off the back of a hugely disappointing 2-1 defeat to Newcastle
United at the weekend in the Premier League, but smashed Borussia Dortmund 4-1 last time out in Europe.
Here are five things to look out for in Champions League action:
Will Echeverri get to play?
City loanee Claudio Echeverri has endured a difficult time so far playing for Bayer Leverkusen.
The Argentinian may well have found himself staying as part of the squad this season hadn’t it been for a surplus of players in the first team squad, but as it is, he and his agent ignored City’s advice and went to Leverkusen instead of Girona.
As it is, Echeverri has played just 11% of minutes available to him in the Bundesliga this season, and doesn’t have a single goal contribution. He’s played slightly more in the Champions League, but still has recorded just one assist and 135 minutes of football across four appearances.
Guardiola when asked said it was up to his “beautiful agent” as to whether the former River Plate attacking midfielder would be recalled in the winter window, but he’s stuck at Leverkusen at least until January.
Hopefully we’ll get to see him play a few minutes this evening as it’ll be a valuable learning experience for him (and if he has any sense, he won’t get back on the plane to Germany!)
A few changes from Newcastle on Saturday
City were ok against Newcastle on Saturday, but in attacking areas left a lot to be desire.
Erling Haaland had his worst game of the season so far but with 32 goals already for club and country this season it’d be ludicrous to consider dropping him.
Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki, who were both under par, may not be so lucky, especially with the likes of Omar Marmoush, Tijjani Reijnders, Savinho and Oscar Bobb waiting in the wings.
I’d like to see a few players who performed poorly perhaps because of a build up of games be rested tonight, and it’d be nice to see the likes of Reijnders, Marmoush, Nathan Ake and potentially a few others start for the first time in a while.
Haaland back amongst the goals
City’s number nine will be absolutely itching to get back amongst the goals after firing blanks against the Magpies on Saturday evening.
The 25-year-old is approaching a landmark 100 Premier League goals in a record fast time, and a couple tonight would be perfect preparation for him smashing the record against Leeds United on Saturday.
And you can never back against Haaland scoring, can you?
Nico afforded a rest at some stage
With Mateo Kovacic out for the foreseeable future and Rodri suffering constant muscular setbacks following his ACL injury last season, City are extremely reliant on Nico Gonzalez at the moment.
City were poor against Aston Villa when none of that trio started, with Reijnders playing and struggling as the deepest lying midfielder.
But if City are comfortably ahead tonight, I could see Nico being afforded a few minutes of rest with games against Leeds, Fulham and Sunderland all coming up in the next week or so.
John Stones would be my first choice option to play there, but Reijnders, Bernardo and even Nico O’Reilly could be temporary fixes there.
An opportunity for City to get back to winning ways
As I said in my post-match review of the Newcastle defeat, I don’t think there are real signs of this being anything serious for City – just a blip after a good run.
That said, questions may be asked if the Blues disappoint again and lose in the Champions League to a side who have been picked apart this summer in losing their manager Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid and three key players in Granit Xhaka, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong to Premier League sides.
This is a chance for City to nip any doubts in the bud and perhaps start a winning run ahead of the beginning of the busy Christmas period.
