The meaningful matches just keep coming for Manchester City, who next host Newcastle United in a battle of fourth versus fifth. In other words, Saturday is pretty critical for top four/UEFA Champions League qualification hopes, for both sides.
City’s current UCL campaign is not going too well at this point, as they just barely got in to the playoff round, on the final day, and then suffered a 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Newcastle United at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Sat. Feb. 15, 3pm, Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
Team News for Both Sides: go here
Starting XI Predictions: Man City Newcastle
PL Form, Standings: Man City 5th, 41 pts, WDWWL Newcastle 6th, 41 pts, WWLWL
Google Result Probability: Man City 51% Draw 23% Newcastle 26%
So with that in mind, we looked at the lineup that Pep Guardiola constructed for that match, and the considered some squad rotation for the weekend visit from Newcastle United.
So with that in mind, here is what we think that looks like.
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction vs Newcastle United
Ederson: Rico Lewis, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Josko Gvardiol; John Stones; Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Savinho; Erling Haaland.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.