It’s never nice to see players injured, and of course, professionally, it’s important to remember that they’re humans too. That said, Manchester City’s recent League Cup win over Chelsea has potentially given Liverpool a slight advantage going into this week’s Premier League games.
According to Ian Irving, City trained this morning, with midfield anchor Fernandinho, key centre-backs Laporte and Stones, and Brazilian striker Jesus, all notable absentees.
We probably already knew that Fernandinho and Laporte would be out of action, but Fernandinho’s groin injury looks set to keep him out for a number of weeks.
Manchester City are training this morning with Fernandinho, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Gabriel Jesus all missing from the session in front of the cameras. Fabian Delph, Ilkay Gundogan and Benjamin Mendy trained as normal #MCFC
— Ian Irving (@ianirvingtv) 26 February 2019
City are going to face troubles with a lack of defensive cover and that could prove pivotal as we go into the next round of must-win fixtures. We have maybe the next best defensive midfielder in the country right now in Fabinho, but he’s going nowhere and is as much a key part of our team as his fellow Brazilian is for City.
We all remember what happened when Fernandinho was out earlier on in the season, as Man City crumbled in surprise defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City.
Luckily, we seem to be recovering from our own defensive woes somewhat with Trent back in the team (albeit on the bench against United), and Dejan Lovren approaching fitness in the next few weeks. We’ve coped admirably with Matip deputising for Joe Gomez, and in turn, Lovren, but it doesn’t look we’ll see the Englishman back until the business end of the season hits overdrive.
This term, it looks like the title race will go down to the wire. In a situation of such tight margins, any possible advantage has to be welcomed. Let’s just hope that City start leaking goals and hope that other teams will look to the blueprints provided by Palace, Leicester, and Newcastle, and beat them.