Predicted Starting Line-Up: Leicester City vs Manchester City (Premier League) | OneFootball

A slumping Manchester City side head to the King Power Stadium in search of just their second win in 14 games across all competitions on Sunday afternoon.

Pep Guardiola’s faltering side have continued to trend downwards ever since the late Autumn, and have found themselves well off the pace behind current Premier League leaders Liverpool heading into the New Year.

Despite that, Manchester City can begin to turn their fortunes around with a trip to struggling Leicester City on Sunday afternoon, although further injury concerns could be a dampener on the Premier League clash.

The Etihad Stadium outfit will likely be without all of Rodri, Oscar Bobb, John Stones, and Ruben Dias, while the fitness of Matheus Nunes, Ederson, Nathan Ake, and Jack Grealish all remain in doubt heading into matchday 19.

With those fitness concerns in mind, let’s sort through how we believe Pep Guardiola might set his latest Manchester City side up against the Foxes on Sunday afternoon!

Predicted XI

With Ederson still a doubt due to recent injury concerns and “niggles” in his leg, as explained by Pep Guardiola, we will take the safe decision of sticking Stefan Ortega Moreno in between the sticks this weekend.

The defence remains injury-riddled, particularly in the central defensive ranks, but club captain Kyle Walker should come back into the team at right-back and thus hand Rico Lewis a perhaps much-needed rest.

Meanwhile, calls for an injection of youth into the team have been widely shot down by Pep Guardiola in recent outings, but we may finally see another start for Jahmai Simpson-Pusey in the centre of defence.

The youngster should be joined by Manuel Akanji, assuming the Swiss international defender is fully-fit and available to start consecutive matches for Manchester City amid recent fitness issues.

That, of course, leaves Josko Gvardiol to take up his spot at left-back, continuing his dominance in the role amid a lack of other options at Pep Guardiola’s disposal amid the ongoing struggles of Nathan Ake.

As we head into midfield, Mateo Kovacic will continue to fill the Rodri-sized hold in the centre of the park, and he should be joined by Bernardo Silva to help with some control and energy.

Kevin De Bruyne has been used sparingly in the last few games, largely due to a sickness bug that has been circulating within the Manchester City camp, so he could finally be fresh enough for a start at the King Power Stadium.

While he went for the speedy, dynamic set-up of Jeremy Doku and Savinho on the wings against Everton on Boxing Day, we believe Pep Guardiola will remove the latter to push Phil Foden out wide on the right.

It was another frustrating day at the office for Erling Haaland against the Toffees, particularly given his missed opportunity from the penalty spot, but strikers must always play through their dry spells and he will be keen to make amends this time out.

Finally, Jeremy Doku will keep his spot in the Manchester City starting line-up and look to be the chaos agent for the Sky Blues once more, offering directness and speed in his approach towards the Foxes rearguard.

Predicted XI: Ortega Moreno; Walker, Simpson-Pusey, Akanji, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Bernardo, De Bruyne; Foden, Haaland, Doku.

Substitutes: Carson, Lewis, Ake, O’Reilly, Wright, Gundogan, McAtee, Savinho, Grealish.