Crystal Palace will be back at Selhurst Park this weekend and welcoming the treble holders Manchester City, here’s our predicted XI.
After losing to Bournemouth on Tuesday, Crystal Palace are back to the point of looking over their shoulders at the closing gap to relegation.
After just five points in five games since the arrival of Oliver Glasner, things aren’t going well for Palace right now.
The consensus is that Palace need to survive this season, to allow Glasner a summer to strengthen ahead of his first full season.
But this Saturday, the Eagles will be facing Manchester City. A game in which historically Palace have had success.
So ahead of the game, here’s how we want Palace to line up at Selhurst Park…
Crystal Palace predicted XI vs Man City
With a daunting task such as City awaiting Palace, Glasner will need to name a strong team. Although the magnitude of injuries will of course make this tricky.
Dean Henderson however will start after he has been impressive for most of his two games since Sam Johnstone’s injury.
The back three is as injury-plagued as they come, with Chris Richards and Marc Guehi both still out. So it’ll likely be Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen and then Jefferson Lerma making up the three.
READ MORE: Who is Marc Guehi? Meet the Crystal Palace and England defender tipped for the top
In the wing-back positions, Daniel Munoz will start on the right with Tyrick Mitchell on the left. We imagine they’ll be handed more of a defensive set of rules for this one than we’ve seen in recent weeks.
In midfield, Adam Wharton should continue after he was phenomenal last weekend, and next to him, we think David Ozoh deserves the start.
He could do no worse than Will Hughes, who was thrown in unfairly at centre-back vs Bournemouth and then he was also top-class against City back in the 2-2 draw in December.
Jordan Ayew and Eberechi Eze should both start in those inside winger roles, as Glasner will have Michael Olise on the bench with a late cameo expected.
Up top, it’ll be Jean-Philippe Mateta – who Pep Guardiola highlighted as a dangerman – as he looks to show Erling Haaland who the better striker is after the pair were compared earlier this week.
The post 5-4-1: Crystal Palace predicted XI vs Man City, Glasner starts 18-year-old gem appeared first on We are Palace.