Manchester City begin their Carabao Cup campaign against League One Huddersfield Town at the Accu Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s side are off the back of winning seven points from three very tough games in a week
against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal, so are expected to rotate heavily.
Their opponents are pushing for promotion back up the Championship, and are in the play off places nine matches into the season.
Here are five things to look out for ahead of the third round of the cup:
Mukasa and Mfuni starting
Pep Guardiola said in his pre-match press conference that the injuries in the squad means he has to give lesser priority to the Carabao Cup, so a few academy players would be starting.
The EDS lost 3-0 to Bolton Wanderers last night, but notably Divine Mukasa and Stephen Mfuni weren’t in the squad.
Mukasa is a left footed attacking midfielder of the Guardiola mould – supremely technical, has an eye for goal and can play as a false nine, which is where I think he’ll start (more of that to come later.)
And Mfuni is reminiscent of a taller Nathan Ake. Composed on the ball, intelligent and athletic, I expect him to start at left back, with the Dutchman next to him to help guide him through the game.
Squad players looking to earn more minutes
This is an excellent chance for some of the players who’ve started the season on the pitch to stake a claim for more minutes.
John Stones started the season starting but a minor injury has seen him sit out the last three, so he and Ake will be hoping to challenge Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias at centre back.
Nico Gonzalez surely won’t start over a fit Rodri, but there’s a chance he could play alongside him or in a more advanced position.
And the wide positions remain all to play for, so Savinho and Oscar Bobb will be looking to take the opportunity by adding their names to the scoresheet as Jeremy Doku has done recently.
False nine football returning!
The expected absence of Erling Haaland and the confirmed absence of Omar Marmoush means City have no choice really but to opt for playing a false nine.
This system was really successful for City in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, where both years the Blues won the Premier League.
Of the current squad, Bobb, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Rayan Cherki, Rico Lewis and maybe even Tijjani Reijnders could play the role, but I don’t think any of them will.
I expect Mukasa to play there, as he did for the final 30 minutes against Palermo in City’s only pre-season summer friendly.
Guardiola requires a lot from his midfield trio and tends not to trust new players in the centre of midfield unless they already have a vast amount of experience there – look at Matheus Nunes, an out and out midfielder signed for City until Guardiola decided it just wasn’t the position for him.
Therefore I expect Foden and Lewis, who have much more experience at the top level, to feature deeper in midfield, whilst Mukasa leads the line through the middle.
A chance if it does go to penalties
It would be very close to the worst case scenario, but in James Trafford, City have a trustworthy goalkeeper when it comes to penalty shootouts.
Trafford has saved some really important penalties in his career, including a last minute stop for England U21s to win them the 2023 Euros final, and two late saves from Sunderland’s Wilson Isidor for Burnley last season.
Stefan Ortega has never saved a penalty for City, and whilst Ederson did save two in the last two seasons in shootouts, his final open play penalty save for City was in May 2021.
With him and Gianluigi Donnarumma in the ranks, City can now have confidence heading into shootouts again.
Haaland, Rodri and others not featuring at all
Most importantly, this is an opportunity for a breather for the most important of City’s players, but also a chance for the others to build some momentum.
I expect Donnarumma, Haaland and Rodri to be left out of the squad entirely. Reijnders, O’Reilly, Gvardiol, Bernardo and Doku should also be allowed a rest after an extremely busy week.
Cherki, Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri should all be fit again reasonably soon, which will take the expectation of some players to have to play every week.
But in the meantime, the core of the squad are going to have a huge build up of minutes, and this will be a welcome opportunity of rest for them.
