Manchester City (H) Preview

Tomorrow, Wolves face Manchester City in the next game of our 'nightmare run'. Having performed reasonably well in defeats to at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford, we will be looking to use our home advantage to gain our first point against the new 'Big-4' since returning to the Premier League. Last season, we failed to score against Man City, going down in a battling 1-0 defeat at Eastlands before being turned over 3-0 at Molineux.

Tomorrow's match should see the return of Karl Henry in what could be an incredibly feisty battle against Nigel de Jong. Possibly the two major villains of the season so far, neither will want to give an inch to their opposite number. City will be without the suspended Dedryck Boyata (sent off last week against Arsenal for a professional foul), and so could see Joleon Lescott return to Molineux for the first time in a playing capacity for the first time since he left for Everton in the summer of 2006. I fully expect him to get an excellent reception before the game. Interestingly, City will be without captain, and arguably most important player, Carlos Tevez. Tevez has scored an astonishing 58% of City's goals this season and will be a massive loss for City. Emmanuel Adebayor is expected to deputise in Tevez's absence, although Mario Balotelli may get his first Premier League start.

I hope the line-up will be similar to last weeks against Chelsea, with just Karl Henry returning for David Edwards, and possibly, fitness permitting, Stephen Hunt being given his first League start. I watched City closely on Sunday, despite the early red card to Boyata. Firstly, they played no fewer than three left backs (Jerome Boateng, Gareth Barry and finally Wayne Bridge). This seems to be a problem position for City, with big money signing Aleksandar Kolarov out through injured. I'd like to see Matt Jarvis playing down the right with specific instructions to get himself into one-on-one situations with their left back. He gave Ashley Cole a torrid time there last Saturday, and this could be out best way of attacking them.  Jarvis will definitely have more joy down the right hand side seeing as Micah Richards appears to have remembered he’s a footballer this season and has been a regular there. He does like to bomb forward though, and with our weaknesses at left back, Jelle van Damme should probably be deployed in midfield to add some extra protection down that flank.

The forward lines could be interesting. I saw one comment suggesting that Kevin Doyle should play as a ‘false 9’ in order to confuse the City defenders. I disagree with this however- City will play at least two defensive midfielders, with De Jong and Gareth Barry likely to be closing the space in front of the City back-4.  This will seriously limit the space that Doyle would have to play in, and instead I would like to see him playing right on the shoulder of the last defender in order to stretch the defence.  Had Tevez been fit, I may have suggested playing Mancienne in defence with a specific man marking role, as Tevez spends most of his time in midfield.  However, Richard Stearman and Christophe Berra should be far better equipped to deal with the physical attributes of Adebayor or Balotelli.  They will stretch the defence far more than Tevez will, and this may allow the likes of David Silva, James Milner and Adam Johnson (none of whom like to see chalk on their boots) more space in front of the defence. It is for this reason that I would like to see Karl Henry return and form a double pivot with Nenad Milijas, crowding the space in the middle of the park.

Tomorrow will be an extremely difficult game, with City looking to bounce back from last week’s home defeat to Arsenal.  In theory, they should have the players to win comfortably, but they have had issues beating the so-called ‘weaker’ teams, often lacking the ability to get in behind teams, especially without the massively influential Carlos Tevez.