After drawing 3-3 with Real Madrid in the Champions League, Manchester City host Luton Town in the Premier League – and Paul Merson is predicting Pep Guardiola will not drop a player he thinks is ‘mindblowing’.
City managed to draw with Real at the Bernabeu, but attention will now turn back to the Premier League and the title race once more.
It is expected that Pep will be rotating because of the second leg with Madrid next week.
We will probably not see Phil Foden, who limped out of the draw on Tuesday. Although we could see Kevin De Bruyne get some minutes. The Belgian didn’t feature against Real Madrid due to illness.
It will be very interesting to see that teamsheet this weekend with such a massive game coming right after.
It will be especially interesting to see if Erling Haaland will start, with the Norwegian having just slowed up a bit recently on the goalscoring front.
But in the eyes of Merson, Haaland will surely start against Luton…
Paul Merson says ‘mindblowing’ Erling Haaland will start for Manchester City against Luton
City are heavy favourites to beat Luton at the Etihad, but they are fighting for their Premier League lives and may not make it easy.
But City have played the Hatters twice already this season, and thrashed them in the FA Cup 6-2 at Kenilworth Road in February.
Haaland hasn’t really been at his best in the last few weeks, and really struggled to have an impact against Arsenal and Real Madrid. He has been criticised again recently for lacking impact, although former City defender Joleon Lescott came to his defence, calling him the striker who is ‘the most prolific in the world’.
We know Pep is a big advocate for rhythm and momentum, and Merson believes this could come into the manager’s thinking with Haaland this weekend.
Predicting a 3-0 win for City, he said (via Sportskeeda): “I doubt Erling Haaland gets benched for Julian Alvarez. His record is phenomenal and he’s a mindblowing goalscorer. Alvarez is a great player and he doesn’t necessarily have to play up front, so he can still get a run of games.
“When Haaland doesn’t score, he keeps defenders busy with his runs and that opens up space for others, so he’s still a valuable asset to the team. To say Man City are favorites for the Premier League title is a
dangerous thing as it’s not in their hands with seven games to go!”
Haaland won’t necessarily play, despite Pep’s love of rhythm
There is a chance that we could see Haaland against Luton, but it feels as though he is more likely to come off the bench in the second-half than start.
Pep likes for his players to have rhythm and Haaland could do with building some at the moment.
But there’s also the risk of something happening to him ahead of an absolutely huge game.
City have the squad depth to beat Luton at home without needing to use the likes of Haaland and Foden from the start.
It would be a surprise if Julian Alvarez did not get a run out against the Hatters, with Haaland perhaps getting 15 or so minutes just to keep his body ticking over.