Manchester City vs Manchester United Preview

Community Shield, Saturday 10th August 15:00 (GMT)

An opportunity for Manchester City to win at Wembley and get one back on United after the FA Cup defeat. Of course. But this is also another preseason match for the returning players to get up to speed. That’s the balance Guardiola will be trying to find on Saturday afternoon.

Previous Results

• Manchester City have played against Celtic (4-3L), Milan (3-2L), Barcelona (2-2D) and Chelsea (4-2W) in their preseason tour.

• Manchester United have played against Rosenborg (1-0L), Rangers (2-0W), Arsenal (2-1L), Real Betis (3-2W) and Liverpool (3-0L) in their preseason tour.

Notable Injuries:

• Manchester City do not have any injuries heading into the match.

• Manchester United will be without Leny Yoro (foot) for three months and Rasmus Hojlund will not be involved with the squad until after the September international break.

Manchester United Setup

Manchester United head into the match without key players either available (Mainoo, Shaw) or fit (Yoro, Hojlund). Results in preseason are not to be taken too seriously but the performances can tell you something, and those still follow the trends we saw throughout last season under Erik Ten Tag.

Young players in Amass and Collyer have impressed in moments. Question marks remain for me over the performances we can expect from Mason Mount and Jadon Sancho for different reasons.

Marcus Rashford has come off a disappointing season and missed out on England selection, the same as Jack Grealish. He should fancy his chances going up against Rico Lewis at RB.

If there is one player to watch for Manchester United it’s Amad Diallo who is a technical winger, composed on the ball, and keeps control very tight. Some small similarities to how a young Bernardo Silva would play that role in his time at Monaco. Diallo wasn’t given the deserved amount of minutes last season but he could make his mark this time around.

Here is the team they played in their last friendly match, against Liverpool.

Manchester City Setup

Apart from the England trio and Rodri, all first-team players have returned to training. That raises some questions over the starting eleven after so many impressive individual performances in preseason from others. We should get our first look at Savinho against Manchester United after he started training with the first team this week.

The star performer for the team in the preseason tour was Oscar Bobb and he starts the season with the RW shirt. Finishing at the near-post, providing cut-backs, turning full-backs inside out, and delivering crosses to the back-post for Haaland. If he continues these performances against United and Chelsea then who knows how many minutes he could play this season.

Rico Lewis is another one who impressed during preseason. Looking more mature and composed at right-back. Dealt well with the opposition wingers for the most part and offered options centrally when he inverted as well as pushing up to support Oscar Bobb in the latter two matches. Rashford will be a big test for him if they both start.

It’s reported that James McAtee will be offered a new improved contract extension shortly. Off the back of his integration in preseason to the first team. Excellent in the pockets. Able to link up with either winger for short combinations. Makes well-timed runs into the box.

Last to mention of the young players is Nico O’Reilly who Guardiola said could be our solution to cover Rodri. Likely alongside Mateo Kovacic in a double pivot for now. His size matched with the technical ability on the ball is a unique profile for the squad.

Here is my predicted eleven for the match against Manchester United. Sticking with something similar to what we saw in preseason. Bringing in two central defenders to start and then looking to mix returning players in during the second half.

De Bruyne, Doku, Savinho, Bernardo and Ake I’d expect to see come on either at half-time or the 60’ mark. The trio returning from England duty and Rodri I wouldn’t expect to be involved in the match at all. Chelsea will likely be the first chance for those players to get minutes.

With everything going on around Ederson possibly moving to Saudi or elsewhere, there is a good chance that Ortega starts this match. Ederson has not looked focused and sharp throughout the preseason.

I do think that City will come out on top given the difference in quality available and how sharp City has looked at the end of the preseason. With a lot of quality players to come on in the second half for minutes as well. The priority as always with these games is getting through them without injury and putting minutes into the legs of our returning senior players.

Ones to Watch: Oscar Bobb for Manchester City, Amad Diallo for Manchester United.

Predicted Lineup: Ortega, Lewis, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol, Kovacic, O’Reilly, McAtee, Grealish, Haaland, Bobb

Predicted Score: Manchester City 2 - 1 Manchester United

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