With the primary goal of the Champions League group stage – winning the group and progressing to the next round – already secured, Manchester City are expected to field a much Weaker side from the one that played Fulham last week when they face Marseille tonight.
City go into tonight’s clash having already automatically qualified to the next 16 with a game to spare. That being said, it will be interesting to see how many new faces Pep Guardiola will introduce to the starting eleven.
In his pre-match conference ahead of the showdown this night, Pep hinted that he has no intention of making too many changes to his starting lineup but given his caliber and how dubious he can be, we believe that’s just mind games.
Asides from already sealing qualification, Pep, and his stars travel to Old Trafford at the weekend to take on Manchester United in what is expected to be a thrilling Manchester Derby. With both teams looking to have bragging rights over one another, none of both managers would want to risk their star players.
This is why we believe Pep will more than likely rest his key players ahead of the showdown. Marseille boss Andre Villas-Boas already know what to expect from Guardiola, so he wouldn’t take the Spanish manager’s words for anything serious.
Here’s the predicted lineup we think Pep will unleash on his French rivals in tonight’s UEFA Champions League clash
Goalkeeper – Zak Steffen
Defenders – Oleksandr Zinchenko, Aymeric Laporte, Taylor Harwood-Bellies, Joao Cancelo
Midfielders – Ilkay Gündoğan, Fernandinho, Phil Foden
Forwards – Ferran Torres, Sergio Agüero, Bernando Silva
The lineup sees some youngsters given some game time, including Taylor who would be making his Champions League bow following the renewal of his contract earlier this week.