While many of us were expecting to hear the latest on Erling Haaland (£14.8m) from Pep Guardiola in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference, Manchester City have gone early on an update.
The club put out a statement at 20:00 BST on Monday evening, saying the following:
“Manchester City FC can confirm that Erling Haaland has suffered an injury to his left ankle.
“The Norwegian striker sustained the injury during Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final victory away at AFC Bournemouth.
“Erling underwent initial tests in Manchester on Monday morning and will now seek specialist consultation to confirm the full extent of the injury.
“Assessment remains ongoing to ascertain a full prognosis. The expectation is that Erling will be fit in time to play a further part in the remainder of this season, including this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.” – Manchester City club statement
It’s all a little vague but the line “will be fit in time to play a further part in the remainder of this season, including this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup” does make it sound like he could be sidelined for some weeks.
Double Gameweek 33 – if Manchester City are to get a ‘double’ then – is only 19 days away, so there has to be some serious doubt about whether he’s back for that.
WHO WILL START UP FRONT FOR CITY?
Omar Marmoush (£7.3m) could be set to benefit from increased minutes, further increasing his popularity in FPL. He is currently the most-bought player of Gameweek 30, with over 500,000 transfers in.
However, we only need to look back at the FA Cup fifth-round win over Plymouth Argyle and the Gameweek 26 defeat to Liverpool to see Pep Guardiola opting for a different approach, namely Phil Foden (£9.2m) through the middle.
Regardless of who gets the nod, there is still room for the other in the same starting XI. Marmoush played as a ’10’ behind Foden in Gameweek 26, for instance, while Foden was a sort of right-sided midfielder when Marmoush led the line against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.
Guardiola has even previously namechecked Oscar Bobb (£4.7m), Bernardo Silva (£6.1m), Ilkay Gundogan (£6.3m) and James McAtee (£4.6m) as alternatives through the middle!
FPL REPERCUSSIONS: TEMPLATE FRONT THREE + TIME FOR SAKA?
With Haaland set for a spell out and Chris Wood (£7.3m) an ongoing injury concern (Monday’s update actually didn’t sound too bad), there is the danger of a ‘template’ front three forming in FPL.
Marmoush would be one, of course, with the other two being Gameweek 32 ‘doublers’ Alexander Isak (£9.3m) and Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m).
It’s not the cheapest frontline but with Haaland and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) off the table and many ditching Cole Palmer (£10.8m), funds won’t be a problem for many.
Speaking of funds and with many FPL managers likely to be sitting on plenty of cash in the bank following a Haaland sale, there will probably be increased demand in Bukayo Saka (£10.2m) before he’s even kicked a ball on his comeback.
Arsenal are (along with Man City, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa) one of the four clubs many believe could double in Gameweek 33
And on the same day City issued the above Haaland statement, Mikel Arteta confirmed that Saka is “ready to go”. That may only be substitute duty in Gameweek 30, while don’t forget that minutes could be managed in Gameweeks 31-33 around the UEFA Champions League double-header against Real Madrid.
We all know how much Arteta likes to start Saka, however, so once the England international is back up and running, it probably won’t be long before he’s a permanent fixture on the right flank.
ON-SITE POLLS RESET
With Haaland set to miss Gameweek 30 (and plenty more happening besides elsewhere), we’ve decided to reset the results in our on-site polls.
The Gameweek 30 captain poll will most definitely be affected by Haaland’s absence, while no doubt the decision over when to Wildcard has similarly been influenced.
In the below gallery (click to expand), you can see the top of the saved results from both polls for posterity.
In reality, of course, the results of these would already have been affected by injury news from the last few days.
The polls can be viewed below:
