10 changes for City against Swans | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made 10 changes to his starting XI from the side beaten at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Only Oscar Bobb retains his place as the boss utilises his squad and gives vital minutes to returning players.

It also means Divine Mukasa gets another outing after his debut at Huddersfield last month, while Rayan Ait-Nouri and Abdukodir Khusanov make welcome returns.

TEAMS

City XI: Trafford, Lewis, Khusanov, Ake (C), Ait-Nouri, Nico, Mukasa, Bobb, Cherki, Doku, Marmoush

Subs: Bettinelli, Donnarumma, Stones, Gvardiol, Savinho, Nunes, O'Reilly, Phillips, Foden

Swansea XI:  Fisher, Key, Widell, Tymon, Burgess (C), Samuels-Smith, Franco, Casey, Inoussa, Galbraith, Idah

Subs: Farman, Fulton, Cabango, Vipotnik, Eom, Cullen, Benson, Santos, Ronald

Tactics

James Trafford will have Rico Lewis and Ait-Nouri as his full-backs and Nathan Ake and Khusanov as his central defenders.

Nico takes on the anchor role in midfield, with Mukasa and Rayan Cherki possibly joining the Spaniard.

That would leave Oscar Bobb, Omar Marmoush and Jeremy Doku in attack, though Cherki and Bobb could swap or change.

It looks like a 4-2-3-1 on paper.

blues looking to reset?

Last season's disappointments in four major competitions will have jarred Pep Guardiola and his players.

The Carabao Cup offers a quick-fix to a campaign without silverware, with the final in March next year.

The City boss targeted this competition early in his tenure, to get his team used to playing in finals as well as getting a taste for trophies.

Given this is largely a new-look City team with many players yet to taste success in English football, expect the Blues to go all out to try and win this cup.

Of course, in recent years other teams have realised their best chance of success is the Carabao Cup, so if City can successfully negate Swansea there are several other strong teams all vying for similar success.

much-needed minutes

The beauty of the knock-out competitions is the opportunity for squad rotation - as reflected in Guardiola's starting XI this evening.

Our trip to Swansea is, in many ways, perfectly timed.

With a batch of players all recently returning to training, now they need match minutes to build up their fitness ahead of an incredibly busy winter schedule.

It also offers the opportunity for players like James Trafford and Rico Lewis to remind everyone of what they are capable of.

Stats

● Swansea are winless in each of their last 15 meetings with City across all competitions (D2 L13), since a 1-0 home win in the Premier League in March 2012.

● This will be the fourth time that City will face Swansea in a domestic cup tie, winning each of the previous three: 2016-17 League Cup third round (2-1), 2018-19 FA Cup quarter-final (3-2) and 2020-21 FA Cup fifth round (3-1).

● Swansea have reached the fourth round of the League Cup for the first time since 2017-18, when they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester United. The Swans have only ever reached the quarter-final stage in 2012-13, when they went on to win the competition under Michael Laudrup.

● Pep Guardiola has only been eliminated from one of his 42 domestic cup ties against a lower league opponent across his top-flight managerial career, losing 1-0 away to Wigan in the fifth round of the FA Cup in February 2018.

● City’s Phil Foden has both scored and assisted in four of his last nine League Cup starts, and since his debut in the competition in December 2017, only Marcus Rashford (18) has more goal involvements than the Englishman (14 – 6 goals, 8 assists)