Pep Guardiola should start Matheus Nunes in Manchester City’s upcoming Premier League match against Crystal Palace.
After beating Luton Town 2-1 last weekend, City ended the group stage of the Champions League with a 3-2 win over Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.
Now though, tomorrow sees the Citizens take on the Eagles at the Etihad Stadium as they get back to Premier League business.
In terms of what Guardiola’s starting XI could look like for this particular match, one player who we feel should be in it is Nunes.
Nunes should start against Palace
The midfielder has not started a league game for the Manchester club since their 2-1 defeat to Wolves back in September.
However, having completed 82 minutes in midweek against Red Star, the 25-year-old showed why he’d be an asset for this weekend’s clash against Palace.
For example, in addition to providing the assist for City’s first goal of the game, Nunes racked up a 94% passing accuracy percentage as well as winning seven of the 10 ground duels he was involved in.
This performance ultimately earned the midfielder, who was described as an “exceptional” player by Guardiola earlier this season, an overall match rating of 7.3/10 from SofaScore, making him the joint-third-highest rated City player on the day.
So having shown in midweek that not only can he move the ball around the pitch accurately, the Portuguese international can also dominate his opponent when trying to win the ball, which could make him a real handful for Palace to contend with.
Having not started a league game for a significant period of time, if Nunes were to find himself in the starting XI tomorrow, he would undoubtedly be determined to deliver a strong performance and make a point to his manager that he should be in the team on a regular basis.
