How Man City should line up vs Newcastle United in FA Cup without Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City will have to find a way to play without Kevin De Bruyne again after the Belgian suffered a groin injury this week.

De Bruyne has been suffering from persistent hamstring injuries over the last year for City, and has now suffered a minor groin problem that has seen him left out of Belgium's international fixtures this week. Ederson is also out with the injury picked up against Liverpool, but Stefan Ortega would have started against Newcastle in the FA Cup regardless.

Guardiola is likely to go strong given the six days since the Liverpool win and the upcoming international break - and Jack Grealish could be back ahead of schedule with the manager confirming he will be included in the squad. Read how our writers think City should line up vs Newcastle and use the interactive team selector to pick your best starting XI:

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Simon Bajkowski

There's no excuse for City not picking their strongest team for this game. They have to treat it as if it is the only competition they may win this season and they should be fresh after no midweek matches.

The absence of De Bruyne and Ederson and Grealish's lack of sharpness means that it won't be an XI that would play if everyone was fit, but there is still plenty of quality. Jeremy Doku and Mateo Kovacic impressed off the bench at Anfield and have surely earned their way into the XI at the expense of De Bruyne and Julian Alvarez.

That allows Phil Foden to come into the middle, with Bernardo Silva staying out wide on the right - at least nominally, but he will