Haaland and Foden dropped as Man City name surprise starting XI vs Wolves | Football | Sport

Erling Haaland and Phil Foden have been left out of Manchester City’s starting XI for the Premier League encounter with Wolverhampton Wanderers today, with Pep Guardiola naming a surprise line-up for the Etihad Stadium fixture. Foden and Haaland are the notable absentees. Both started in the 3-1 Champions League defeat to Bodo/Glimt, with Haaland playing the entire 90 minutes away in Norway.

Guardiola’s only substitution in that defeat saw Foden replaced by Omar Marmoush after 70 minutes. The City manager confirmed ahead of the game: “He maintains, a little bit, broken his bones, but he has protection, and he is fine.” Foden was withdrawn at half-time during last weekend’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford after an awkward tumble that resulted in a fractured hand.

Haaland, meanwhile, was also available in midweek after Guardiola stated on Monday: “He said to me he slept unbelievably, so he is fit.” City’s boss also addressed whether the striker can maintain his early-season form. He said: “It depends on his mind, and his fire, it will dictate it. As much as he’s not injured, he can play, yeah.”

But the Norwegian striker, on 20 goals in 22 games, sits on the bench at home to Wolves. Marmoush instead leads the line with January signing Antoine Semenyo on the left wing and Rayan Cherki on the right.

Elsewhere, Marc Guehi makes his City debut at centre-back. Signed from Crystal Palace this week, he partners Abdukodir Khusanov in the heart of the backline. Matheus Nunes starts at right-back despite struggling with a virus recently.

Guardiola confirmed this week: “In Bodo we missed in the boxes the chances we had again and the long balls and duels we were not aggressive enough and lost the second balls because we do not have specific players in that position but in general I had the feeling that the team was there.

“For 15-20 minutes except one action we were really good, after two minutes we conceded two goals. The chance we had after 40 minutes and Max Alleyne’s header from five yards in the opening minutes, one minute after the goal we had the sending off from Rodri. In those little situations you have to be lucky and we were not.

“Against United without Gigio [Donnarumma] the goals difference would have been higher but in terms of Bodo I don’t have that feeling. But it’s so demanding. For Max it will be an incredible lesson for his learning and development and we have to move forward.

“The fragility – I know how it will be solved. It’s not just one player but he (Guehi) is going to help us because the experience of Marc is exceptional, he’s a player for the national team of England, he was captain of a team that won the FA Cup and made an incredible season under Oliver Glasner.

“This season they have struggled for details and injuries. But fragility is not just about one player. I know what the solution is to not have the fragility. The players know it.”