City make nine changes with 16-year-old Braithwaite handed debut

City have made nine changes for tonight’s Carabao Cup clash with Watford with 16-year-old Kaden Braithwaite coming in for his first-team debut.

With such a short turnaround after our Premier League clash with Arsenal, Pep Guardiola has chosen to refresh his starting line-up with five Academy players starting.

Phil Foden makes his first start of the season while Rico Lewis, Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee come into the side along with Braithwaite.

Captain Kyle Walker and Jeremy Doku are the only two in the line-up that started the draw against Arsenal while John Stones comes in following his dramatic late equaliser.

Teams

CITY XI: Ortega Moreno, Walker (C), Stones, Braithwaite, Lewis, O’Reilly, Nunes, McAtee, Doku, Grealish, Foden

Subs: Ederson, Dias, Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo, Gvardiol, Akanji, Savinho, Wright

WATFORD: Bond, Porteous, Ogbonna, Morris, Ebosele, Larouci, Ince, Louza, Sema (C), Bayo, Baah.

Subs: Marriott, Pollock, Chakvetadze, Vata, Dwomoh, Tikvic, Doumbia, Dele-Bashiru, Adu-Poku

Tactics

With so many changes it’s difficult to predict which positions many players will take up, particularly with the flexibility of players like Lewis.

He could be in a back-four with Walker, Stones and Braithwaite who is a left-footed defender.

Matheus Nunes is the most senior player in midfield with O’Reilly and McAtee alongside him.

Doku is likely to play on the right and Grealish on the left with Foden possibly as the false nine.

Super Stefan

Tonight will be the first time we’ve seen Stefan Ortega Moreno this season following his heroics at the end of his last campaign.

He played in our final match of the season against West Ham as we clinched the Premier League as well as the FA Cup final.

But, of course, he will be the synonymous with that crucial victory at Tottenham Hotspur when he had to replace Ederson who was forced off with an injury after bravely diving at the feet of Cristian Romero to keep the home side scoreless.

With a win needed, Son Heung-Min ran through one-on-one in the dying minutes but was denied by the German keeper.

It was a save that will go down in folklore and he’s sure of a big reception on his return.

WATCH: City in the League Cup third round: Memorable moments

Young guns go for it

Even in a youthful line-up, Braithwaite is still quite a bit younger than his closest team-mate in age.

At 16 years and 229 days, he is the third-youngest player to make their full debut for the Club.

The list is led by Glyn Pardoe who, at 15 years and 314 days, was in City’s starting line-up in August 1961 followed closely by Paul Simpson in 1982.

Hopefully he will go on to have as big an impact at the Club as those two City greats.

Hornets stung

You could understand if Watford feared the worst against City when we were paired together in the Carabao Cup.

City have won each of our last 15 matches against the Hornets in all competitions by an aggregate score of 58-8.

In fact, only City ourselves have a longer winning run against a single opponent in English football history, an ongoing run of 16-in-a-row against Fulham.

Cup ties can, of course, be a leveller although Watford have been eliminated from each of their last six domestic cup ties with City.

The most recent of those was the 2019 FA Cup final when we won 6-0, equalling the biggest margin of victory in the showpiece occasion.

Let’s go round again

Last season’s elimination away to Newcastle was an anomaly for Pep Guardiola as it was the first time he has gone out of the first stage of any competition since taking charge of City.

The last time we had lost in the third round was back in September 2012, when Aston Villa won 4-2 at the Etihad after extra time.

We haven’t suffered back-to-back exits from the competition at this stage or earlier since three straight between 2004/05 and 2006/07.

Meanwhile, Watford have been eliminated from four of their last five third round League Cup ties, last reaching the fourth round in 2019/20.