Wednesday night, surely…
I can definitely see Xhaka getting himself booked on Wednesday, most likely just through normal play, but if he's not got a yellow by the 85th minute I can see him taking one intentionally. He's almost certainly going to get to trigger the ban before they reset so it makes sense to do it now.
I actually think the exact opposite for Sadiki, reckon he might be under instruction to try extra hard to AVOID a booking. City with both him and Xhaka missing would be a massacre, and with AFCON coming up, I reckon they will try to get him through to the Mags game so that he has a "free hit" to take a yellow there - he'd serve his ban whilst in Africa, anyway.
100%If they dont get booked tomorrow night would anyone rest them at City and give others a chance . My view is that I would . Xhaka is so important for the mags game in my opinion
Agreed definitely xhaka but gertrudia could step into midfield for sadiki to add height and strength.100%
Sadiki and especially Xhaka MUST play in the derby to give us any chance. The filths midfield is very good
That's all good thinking apart from Sadiki having to play, the remainder of the derby, on a yellow card.
No I just mean if he got a yellow in the derby it wouldn't matter, not that he should intentionally try to get one
It would if it was in the first half, that's a long time on a yellow in a derby ...
... I just don't want to lose the game 'by default'.
A defeat is fine if we've done everything possible to win.
If it’s going to happen make it tomorrow rather than Saturday

And as the bar is obviously set far higher for their yellows, the odds of them getting 2 was ever going to happen!Just checked, they’re both on 3 yellow cards
This whole situation is such a double edged sword. Me personally, we need both Xhaka and Sadiki against the mags that’s without question.. I thought Xhaka would’ve got booked against Fulham and missed Bournemouth, but now with hindsight it’s a good job he didn’t.
So again I’d love him to get booked tonight however if we win what way do we look at the City match? It’s a free hit but if we beat Liverpool we don’t want our confidence to slip by fielding a weak team at City. I’d be ringing Pep and asking him to field their B team and we can playing out a boring 1-0 loss with a weakened team![]()
