Confirmed Manchester City line-up: Ortega; Walker, Stones, Braithwaite, Lewis; O’Reilly, Nunes; McAtee, Doku, Grealish, Foden
Manchester City’s quest for a ninth Carabao Cup begins this week against Watford at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s side are fresh off a 2-2 draw at home to Arsenal. City took an early 1-0 lead when Erling Haaland scored his 100th goal for the club before goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel put the Gunners ahead. However, John Stones equalised for City in stoppage time, denying all three points to Arsenal, who were playing with ten men.
City’s nine Carabao Cups are only the second-best all-time behind Liverpool, who have 10. Guardiola won four trophies in a row, starting in the 2017–18 season and ending in the 2020–21 season. City’s last Carabao Cup win came against Tottenham Hotspur, shortly after José Mourinho was sacked for a late winner from Aymeric Laporte.
With City only playing on Sunday and having a day off, Guardiola may have no choice but to make numerous changes to his lineup compared to the EFL Championship team.
Players like Kyle Walker could keep their place in the starting eleven, but Guardiola cannot field the same players that played against Arsenal due to fatigue and the long season ahead. Guardiola will also be without star midfielder Rodri for the rest of the season, who tore his cruciate ligament on Sunday.
TW: Stefan Ortega – Guardiola should try to give Ortega playing time as goalkeeper.
Centre-back: Kyle Walker – The 34-year-old is expected to start at centre-back and could come on as a substitute at the start of the second half if City have already secured victory by then.
CB: John Stones – The former Everton defender starts in the centre of the back three after playing just over 10 minutes at the weekend.
Centre-back: Joško Gvardiol – Although it is not ideal, Guardiola would probably prefer to use Gvardiol in defence again so soon after Sunday’s draw to give Manuel Akanji a rest.
DM: Rico Lewis – The 19-year-old should be fit and available after appearing as an unused substitute in the draw with Arsenal.
Midfield: Mateo Kovačić – The Croatian international played 70 minutes against the Gunners and should be able to start on Tuesday.
AM: James McAtee: McAtee starts in the Carabao Cup.
AM: Matheus Nunes – Nunes is in the same boat as Ortega. Guardiola could look to give him valuable minutes if he needs to use him more often later in the season.
AM: İlkay Gundogan – In his second appearance at the Etihad, Guardiola knows he can rely on the 33-year-old, no matter what role he is asked to take on.
AM: Jack Grealish – The former Aston Villa winger is still looking for his first goal involvement of the new season.
ST: Phil Foden – Foden gets the nod at the top, but you can expect him to run around more than Haaland, who mainly operates in the box.
