Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will be looking ahead to Sunday’s game against Man United as well as focusing on the Champions League game on a strange surface

Erling Haaland of Manchester City is looking for his first goal of the European campaign (Image: Getty)

Control vs form

Manchester City had Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku on the bench when they travelled to RB Leipzig in their last Champions League match. It was an excellent performance, but still required those two to come on to score the goals that would turn a draw into a win.

Pep Guardiola likes to make his team difficult to beat away from home and craves control that will aid that stability and security, yet his matchwinners against Brighton on Saturday were Doku and Alvarez (and Phil Foden). The lack of injuries in the squad other than Kevin De Bruyne means that Guardiola will be able to choose any selection that he likes to best fit his strategy for the game, so it will be interesting to see how he approaches it.

Haaland waiting to score

Erling Haaland scored 10 goals from his first six European games for City, including that magnificent five at home to RB Leipzig in the last-16. He has managed no goals in his last six, including the semi-final and final last season and the Super Cup this year.

There are no doubts that Haaland will score a lot of goals this season but with a particular affinity for this competition and defending his Golden Boot from last year the Norwegian will want to get off the mark sooner rather than later if he is to repeat his achievement.

Team picked by the pitch

Guardiola has already given extra consideration to the pitch City will play on on Wednesday night by moving their training session the day before the game to the stadium rather than City’s base. It’s a surface that has irked two different United teams in recent years, with Jose Mourinho saying in 2018 that players feared injury and Luke Shaw slamming it three seasons later as dangerous to play on.

City already have one fewer day to prepare for the derby on Sunday than United do and more travel, so this is an additional headache feeling that the squad will have to get a feel of the artificial turf before they can think exactly who can and maybe shouldn’t be risked on it.

Forward planning

The victory in Leipzig was crucial in enabling City to grasp early control of the group ahead of a doubleheader with Young Boys. The aim going into every year is to win home games and then try and avoid defeat away, but a second away victory would all but seal qualification to the knockouts given City’s strength at the Etihad.

If the Blues can win in Switzerland, they will know they are one good performance away in a few weeks from being able to forget about the Champions League until February. For a squad that really likes to hit their stride domestically in the winter months, that could be critical to their hopes of landing a fourth straight Premier League title.

Source: manchestereveningnews.co.uk