Sunderland Preview (a)

Another away game. Stadium Of Light this time. Bottom of the league and in no kind of form. Sunderland will play to Defoe and hope for the best. He's getting on yet never seems to decline and will cause City's defenders problems. He can't do it alone so Sunderland's attackers need to get involved and I think City will look to isolate Defoe, if they do then City will win. It won't be easy though as Defoe is an excellent player so City need to play well. City have found form and found goals, but they do concede still and will give Sunderland chances, they need to take them. I fancy City will score 2 or 3 tomorrow. Pickford's injury has hurt Sunderland, I don't rate their defence and I don't rate Moyes' defensive approach as he isn't that good at it. He is good at pressing, making things difficult and punishing opponents when they have an off day. City need to be careful.

I don't think there is much to report on with the teams. City will probably be similar to the team that played against Monaco, a 4-2-3-1. Sunderland? I don't know. I imagine they might put in a 9-0-1. City need to break them down and then break them down again. They will look to frustrate but I really rate City's attack. Sterling looks ace, Sane looks amazing, Aguero finding his form, Silva bossing the left hand side of the middle. De Bruyne isn't as good as he can be, so I'm hoping he will find his legs soon. I think we might see Yaya return to CDM, Fernandinho move to LB and Stones and Otamendi making up the CB and Sagna at RB (Zaba played great against Huddersfield and wouldn't be surprised to see him start). The only big question is the net? I'd go for Caballero. It works at the moment in the Premier League, don't upset the rhythm Pep. I think he is slowly learning that, again.

I'm going to go for 3-1 City. We just are not good enough at the back. I'd love for us to tighten up and force questions from our opponents and look to hit them hard on the counter, Sane and Sterling are so quick and direct. It would certainly work against teams like Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea etc...

Team Prediction for tomorrow at 4pm:

Caballero-Sagna-Otamendi-Stones-Fernandinho-Yaya Toure-De Bruyne-Silva-Sane-Sterling-Aguero.