Former Manchester City defender Steve Howey has predicted that one Manchester City youngster will start the Community Shield against Manchester United.
Manchester City have just returned from their pre-season tour of the US.
It was a useful couple of weeks out in the States, with many of the club’s brightest young talents getting opportunities to shine.
Pep Guardiola was without a number of his key players after their exploits at international tournaments, so lots of minutes were dished out to players from the academy.
It was great to see the likes of James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly really taking their opportunities. Both will now be first-team options for City in the coming season.
Arguably, the standout player of the tour was Oscar Bobb, who Steve Howey reckons will surely start against Manchester United on Saturday.
Steve Howey says he would be surprised if Pep Guardiola did not start Oscar Bobb in Community Shield vs Man United
Bobb really did shine bright on City’s US tour.
He was heavily involved due to the lack of options for the manager, although you would suspect he still would have featured a fair bit had the full squad been out there.
Bobb put in some electric displays, showcasing his brilliant ball control and dribbling, mostly on the right wing.
He helped himself to a couple of goals and a few assists, and he probably comes out of the tour with the most credit. Shaun Wright-Phillips said after the 4-2 win over Chelsea that the Norwegian starlet could be a potential ‘masterpiece’ for Guardiola.
Steve Howey also spoke about the youngster after the win over Chelsea, and he fully expects to see Bobb named in the starting XI to face Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday.
He said while on punditry duty on the official Man City YouTube channel: “I think one of the questions might have been at the very start about would he start in the Community Shield. I think he will.
“I think we were saying about some of the players not coming until whenever they are. Are they going to be ready to start, probably not.
“But for him, for the tour that he’s had, I think he’s been absolutely excellent. I’d be very, very surprise if he’s not in the starting XI.”
Bobb surely nailed on to start Community Shield
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Bobb is surely in line to start on Saturday in the curtain-raiser that is the Community Shield against United.
He has been magnificent over the last couple of weeks and deserves a chance to feature from the beginning against the club’s bitter rivals – and Pep will surely give him his chance.
Ultimately, the players who were at international tournaments still haven’t returned.
So you would expect none of them are going to play against United, which opens the door for players like Bobb to stake their claims.
You would imagine that Pep will go with a very similar start lineup against United to what he’s been using in pre-season. So McAtee and O’Reilly could also be involved from the get-go.
