Manchester City will face Club America on Thursday morning in the first game of their pre-season tour of the United States.
Pep Guardiola's side will take on the Mexican outfit at Houston's NRG Stadium at 1:30am (UK time) on Thursday morning (8:30pm local time on Wednesday) ,looking to get their preparations for the 2022/23 season off to a winning start. The Blues will then travel north to Green Bay, Wisconsin to face Bayern Munich on Saturday, before returning to the UK for the Community Shield meeting with Liverpool on 30 July.
Guardiola has 26 players from which to select his starting XI from, although he will have to make do without Phil Foden, John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan and Aymeric Laporte, none of whom travelled to the US. Our team of City writers have had their say on who should start for City in Houston, and you can too, using the selector at the bottom:
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Simon Bajkowski
It is always better to play youngsters alongside established regulars in order to bed them in more easily, yet equally it will be a better test to start a match rather than come on once the game may already have been decided.
With CJ Egan-Riley signed for Burnley and City showing no signs of growing their full-back department it is worth testing out Rico Lewis given that Kyle Walker is naturally one of the fittest players in the squad. Luke Mbete will also hope for minutes this season, while James McAtee and Cole Palmer are out to make an impressions.
Julian Alvarez will need to adapt to City but is already fit, whereas Jack Grealish will be looking to prepare for a big season ahead and the absence of Phil Foden makes his pick on the left wing easier.
Joe Bray
Ruben Dias was notably absent from training on Tuesday, so he might not be risked, leaving Luke Mbete to step up in a defence that picks itself with the remaining available players - for the first half at least.
I'd give Kalvin Phillips a run out in the second half, with Rodri starting the first with a fairly full-strength side to see how the senior players work with Erling Haaland. Julian Alvarez can replace him in the second half to manage the minutes and expectations of both.
Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish have little competition in the wide areas, so should use this tour to get some momentum ahead of the new season, especially while Phil Foden is not in the US.
Alex Brotherton
I'd like to see Haaland and Alvarez start from the off, along with youngsters Palmer, McAtee and Wilson-Esbrand. I think it would be good to see the other new recruits Phillips and Ortega Moreno start so that they can bed-in and get used to playing in a new system as quickly as possible.
With Stones unable to travel to the US and Laporte still recovering from injury, there is a solid chance that Dias and Ake will be City's centre-back pairing against West Ham on the opening day of the season. If so then Guardiola will want them playing together as much as possible in pre-season.
I can see Guardiola wanting to get minutes in the legs of as many players as possible against Club America, so I expect him to make a lot of substitutions either at half-time or early in the second half.
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