Pep Guardiola takes his Manchester City squad to south Wales to face Swansea City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
The Citizens stumbled in the Premier League at the weekend, beaten by Aston Villa without scoring.
Man City predicted lineup vs Swansea
Man City (4-1-4-1): Trafford; Nunes, Stones, Ake, O’Reilly; Lewis; Bobb, Kovacic, Nico, Doku; Marmoush.
Swansea lifted this trophy in 2013, while Man City have held it aloft no less than six times since then. But they haven’t won it since 2020-21. This game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports+.
Man City team news vs Swansea
Guardiola is always liable to shuffle his pack for the Carabao Cup at this stage of the tournament when faced with lower-tier opposition.
Erling Haaland was always likely to get a rest but the Norwegian is a doubt now, regardless. He collided with a post in his failed attempt to salvage a point at Villa Park on Sunday.
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James Trafford was between the posts last month for the win at Huddersfield Town. The likes of Nico O’Reilly, Nathan Ake, Omar Marmoush and Rico Lewis could also be set for starts.
Teenager Divine Mukasa played 90 minutes against Huddersfield and will hope for more game time.
Rodri, Abdukodir Khusanov and Rayan Ait-Nouri are all currently on the treatment table. And while they are close to returns, this game might come too soon for them as starters.
Who will score for Haaland-less Man City?
Guardiola cited ‘little details’ after the league reverse at Villa Park on Sunday. It was Man City’s third loss in nine games already as they languish six points adrift of pacesetters Arsenal.
“We haven’t scored a lot of goals this season and we have to make a step up,” admitted Guardiola. “We were there, we were close. In the games we won we were not so productive.”
With Haaland unlikely to feature in south Wales, there will be plenty of pre-game talk of how reliant the Citizens are on their talisman.
Haaland has scored 11 Premier League goals already, amid a blistering tally of 24 across all competitions for club and country since August.
Right now, the main source of concern for Guardiola is where the goals will come from when Haaland doesn’t fire or, as seems likely this midweek, is missing.
Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes and Rayan Cherki all have one league goal apiece. Maxime Esteve of Burnley is actually Manchester City’s second-highest goalscorer in the league this season after scoring two own goals in a 5-1 thumping at the Etihad last month.
Ahead of the loss at Villa, Guardiola had asked for his wingers and midfielders to step up and contribute but that didn’t happen. Marmoush and Cherki both came off the bench in the midlands and are likely starters now.
Swansea have lost their last seven games in a row against Man City and haven’t imposed a loss on the Citizens since a Premier League clash in March 2012.
Guardiola will be confident Man City’s impressive run against the Swans can continue, even with potential attacking deficiencies.