Whilst, the first half showing against City was promising when the midfield battle was 3 vs 3, their shift to a box midfield when De Bruyne and co. came on gave them a numerical advantage in the middle which culminated in the goal scored by Palmer. I think as long as we continue to rely on an inverting fullback to give us 4 players in the centre vs City having 4 players permanently fixed in the centre, they will exploit us in the middle and bypass our midfielders with the free man. So tactically, I don't think we are setup to beat them, even though we produced a promising performance. The importance of this can't be understated as I think our prospects of winning the league will come down to our head-to-heads, as I suspect we will beat most of everyone else.
In Europe, I think our performances should theoretically be better having a settled team and not rotating like we did in the Europa League. However, I predict that our lack of experience in Europe will show and I can see us struggle against teams on the continent, similar to our recent draw against Monaco.
So I predict another second placed finish, a disappointing European finish, and a potential cup win as long as we avoid City. So much like last season.
