MANCHESTER CITY
Predicted Manchester City team vs Everton: Will Pep Guardiola rotate his players in the Premier League?
The City boss is expected to rest some key players ahead of a crucial Champions League fixture against Real Madrid.
There are now only four weeks remaining in the 2022/23 season and Manchester City are still in the hunt for a historic treble.
Pep Guardiola’s side are top of the Premier League table and are the favourites to beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final next month. However the biggest challenge comes in the Champions League, where they face reigning European champions Real Madrid.
City drew the first leg 1-1 in the Santiago Bernabeu thanks to a strike from Kevin De Bruyne. They now face an extremely motivated Everton side in the Premier League on Sunday and will have just two days to recover before the second leg against Madrid.
In the first match in Spain, Guardiola opted not to make a single substitution during the 90 minutes of high-intensity action. This means that he is likely to make a number of changes to his team this weekend to give players a rest.
“We will see,” Guardiola said on Friday, when asked if he would make changes to his team against Everton. “We have five days, we’ll see.”
“We’ll see the team today and tomorrow and then we’ll decide, there’s a lot of games too. There are players in the moment that are really important for us.”
Manchester City predicted lineup to play Everton
Although their squad is stuffed with elite-level players, in terms of pure numbers City do not have the deepest squad. Their lead at the top of the table is just one point, so Guardiola is likely to start a strong team at Goodison Park.
The likes of Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez are all expected to feature against Sean Dyche’s side, allowing Guardiola to rest hard-working widemen Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva.
Erling Haaland is one of the most potent attacking forces in world football and was brought in to take the team to the next level in Europe. Nevertheless, Guardiola hinted that Haaland is fit enough to start again on Sunday.
“[Haaland] had a really intense game in Madrid, he could not have done that if tired,” Guardiola said. “I would say yeah he is fit, he recovers well. It’s fine.”
With that in mind, here’s how we expect City to line up against Everton on Sunday:
Ederson; Akanji, Dias, Laporte, Lewis; Rodri, Gundogan; Foden, Mahrez, Alvarez; Haaland
However Pep Guardiola is known for his unexpected team selections and the City boss is keeping his cards close to his chest for now.