Carabao Cup

[Fosterbloke]

City will get the English equivalent of Plovdiv Blovdiv - every ****ing season to the semi-finals.

[Mark79]

City can have it. I really hope we go U23s all the way in this. It’s a worthless competition imo, at least for clubs in European competition.

[Mr Pink]

City can have it. I really hope we go U23s all the way in this. It’s a worthless competition imo, at least for clubs in European competition.

I’m sure that we will- remember the narrative last year on bluemoon that we should have some sort of punishment for not taking it serious enough for their liking, haha

[Shaggy]

Looking forward to Lincoln away now.

Team could look something like this?

Adrian

Williams
Gomez
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas

Thiago
Milner
Jones

Jota
Minamino
Origi

[Exiled_red]

Looking forward to Lincoln away now.

Team could look something like this?

Adrian

Williams
Gomez
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas

Thiago
Milner
Jones

Jota
Minamino
Origi

I'd be happy with that team

[Fosterbloke]

I hope Origi plays down the middle, he seems to be more involved when he has supporting players.

[S-RED]

Not sure we will see Thiago or Jota on Thursday think they will be working them hard in training


Adrian

Williams
Phillips
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas

Wij
Milner
Jones

Origi/Jota
Minamino
Elliott

[memzey]

No one picking Brewster for this? I think he’s nailed on to start.

[Mark79]

No one picking Brewster for this? I think he’s nailed on to start.

Depends how close he is to leaving.

[Exiled_red]

Not sure we will see Thiago or Jota on Thursday think they will be working them hard in training


Adrian

Williams
Phillips
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas

Wij
Milner
Jones

Origi/Jota
Minamino
Elliott

I don't think we'll see Thiago given that he had 45 mins at the weekend (which was earlier than I expected but I guess circumstances came into play), I would assume Jora will play, he has experience in English football, so this is the ideal game. Remember this is almost certainly going to be a second XI so we won't be worrying about the same level of understanding that we would want to have in the PL or CL.

[Exiled_red]

No one picking Brewster for this? I think he’s nailed on to start.

Depends how close he is to leaving.

I guess that there are a couple of options here, do we want to put people in the shop window, because there could also be opportunities for Wilson and Grujic, do we want to avoid injury to those players, or do we just want to focus on players that are on the fringes of the side, or developing youngsters.

[greenturnip]

Klopp might put Wilson and Grujic in the shop window. What about Shaq?

[labourRed]

Not sure we will see Thiago or Jota on Thursday think they will be working them hard in training


Adrian

Williams
Phillips
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas

Wij
Milner
Jones

Origi/Jota
Minamino
Elliott

Absolutely no chance Thaigo will be anywhere near this game. Impossible to predict this line up. He may go full u23s or he could decide that some players need some game time, if so it could be (but nothing stronger than this).

Adrian

Williams
Koumetio/Phillips
Van Den Berg
Tsimikas/Larouci

Grujic
Milner
Jones

Origi/Jota
Minamino
Wilson/Elliot

[Mark79]

I hope we hand it over to the U23 team.

Let the first team staff and players have a full week to prepare for the Arsenal league game.

Round 4 of this scheduled for Tuesday/Wednesday NEXT WEEK and we’re already playing Arsenal on the Monday night!

[Exiled_red]

I think Milner, Tsimikas, Williams, Jones and Minamino are nailed on to start. Presumably we don't want to play anyone who started at the weekend. Thiago could be involved in order to give him some more game time but I don't expect him to play the full 90 mins and I guess it probably depends on what the plans are for him next weekend.

Presumably Adrian will start in goal as he seems to be out cup keeper. Van den Berg is the obvious choice at CB, the question is whether we play someone experienced alongside him (probably Gomez if he is back fit) or go with another youngster. That just leaves 1 midfield spot and 2 forward spots to be sorted out. If Brewster is close to leaving I doubt that he will be involved, it makes sense to give Jota some game time and probably Origi as he will (likely) be involved much of the season, we want to develop Elliott so he will get surely get some minutes although it may be from the bench, it feels like Wilson would have to be forced into the side if we want to put him in the shop window. With a couple of players unavailable with injuries it might make sense to give Grujic the other slot in midfield though.