Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias And Kevin De Bruyne All Start - Predicted Team: Bayern Munich vs Manchester City (Pre-Season Friendly)

Manchester City face their final pre-season test as they take on German giants Bayern Munich in Wisconsin.

City’s first pre-season friendly was a success, with Kevin De Bruyne scoring both goals in a 2-1 victory over Club América.

While Kalvin Phillips, Stefan Ortega and Julian Alvarez all made their first appearances for the club in that match, there was no sign of Erling Haaland, who remained in the stands.

Bayern are expected to create a very different challenge for Pep Guardiola’s side, with their ranks bolstered by new signings such as Sadio Mané and Matthijs De Ligt.

Once again, City will be without trio John Stones, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan, who are unavailable for the USA tour and are instead spending pre-season with the EDS.

Aymeric Laporte was also excluded from the travelling squad with an injury.

Alongside Haaland, Ruben Dias watched the previous game from the stands, but he’s expected to be available for this one. 

With all of that in mind, here’s how we predict City will line up ahead of the game:

Predicted Team:

I don’t expect too many changes from the Club América match for this one, which makes sense - the Community Shield against Liverpool is coming up and Guardiola is bound to want the team that will start that game to get as many minutes as possible.

The quality of the opposition also means a strong team is likely, even for what’s essentially a meaningless friendly.

I expect Stefan Ortega to keep his place in goal, though it wouldn’t be a shock to see Ederson pull on the gloves this time around. The German is here to push our #31, and a pair of good performances against Bayern and Liverpool would get that off to a great start.

In defence, Kyle Walker is a typically solid pick and will be useful against that pacey Bayern attack. This time I think he’ll have Ruben Dias to his left, with the former Premier League Player of the Season winner hopefully fit enough to get a game under his belt before the Liverpool match.

Partnering Dias would surely be Nathan Aké, who’s now confirmed to be staying at the club after weeks of rumours linking him with a move to Chelsea. Luke Mbete is clearly in Pep Guardiola’s mind at the moment, but I don’t see the youngster starting here when preparing the senior players is surely the priority.

That leaves Joao Cancelo to start as the club’s search for a left-back goes on. Marc Cucurella seems the most likely option to come through the door, but for now Cancelo has that spot all to himself after the departure of Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Rodri was quietly excellent the other night and will surely continue to be a key player this season despite the arrival of Kalvin Phillips to offer him some competition.

Kevin De Bruyne’s match-winning turn against Club América makes him a hard man to drop here. De Bruyne has had a few slow starts to seasons in recent years, but this time he looks ready to hit the ground running. His partner will surely be Bernardo Silva.

That brings us to the forwards, and I fully expect Jack Grealish to get another start ahead of what’ll be a huge season for him. The Englishman will benefit from a few more games playing in Pep’s system as he looks to adapt to a unique brand of football. 

Riyad Mahrez is likely to start on the right, now that Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus are gone.

Again, though youngsters like Palmer, McAtee and Delap are undoubtedly promising, I think they’d have been started against Club América if they were going to get a start on this tour at all. 

Finally, I really hope Erling Haaland starts and scores his first goal in a City shirt.

]There’s so much excitement around the Norwegian and it’s hard to believe the wait is almost over to see him play for the club for the first time. If he’s not ready, though, nobody will complain about seeing more from exciting young new boy Alvarez. 

Predicted Team: Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Nathan Aké, Joao Cancelo, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez.

Substitutes: Ederson, Scott Carson, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb, Kayky, Ben Knight, Julian Alvarez, Liam Delap, James McAtee, Cole Palmer, Luke Mbete, Finley Burns, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Kalvin Phillips.