Manchester City face their most important game in the Champions league this season tonight, facing a Bayern Munich side who have already guaranteed a first place finish in the group.

The Good News: Phillip Lahm, David Alaba and Javi Martinez are out injured.

The Bad News: David Silva, Edin Dzeko, and Aleksander Kolarov are out injured, Fernandinho and Yaya Toure are suspended.

Its looking like City are going to have to rely on Bayern Munich not being completely up for this match, as a combination of injury and having already qualified. Last time Manchester City played a semi-dead rubber against the German side they emerged victorious thanks to a inspired display from James Milner.

This is not the game to try and bring players off the bench at the 60-70 minute mark, as by that point the game could be well beyond City

Manchester City have a distinct lack of options for this game. Pellegrini may well go with a midfield of Frank Lampard and Fernando, which doesn’t exactly offer a lot of dynamism and movement. The lack of David Silva to provide the incisive ball in the final third means that Nasri may well try to fill the voidon the left, with Jovetic behind Aguero in a formation similar to the game against Swansea at the weekend.

Personally, I would like to see Milner instead of Frank Lampard in the midfield, primarily because he can harry players far better and hopefully try to disrupt Bayern’s passing game as much as possible. This is not the game to try and bring players off the bench at the 60-70 minute mark, as by that point the game could be well beyond City and so Milner and Navas should hopefully both start in order to try and nick a first half goal.

The defense, again, is an issue . It is likely that Manuel Pellegrini will stick with Kompany and Demichelis purely for the benefit of their experience. This game would likely do more harm than good to Mangala’s uneasy start at City. The loss of Kolarov at left-back will definitely be felt once more, and one would hope that Clichy would build on a slightly more positive performance at the weekend, although obviously Bayern Munich and their prolific wingers are a far different proposition than Swansea.

A point against Bayern Munich at home would be good, but Manchester City need to go for the win here, as difficult as that may be. They are at the precipice here, and need a outstanding performance to try and drag them back.

Prospective Manchester City Line-up: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany (c), Demichelis, Clichy, Fernando, Milner, Nasri, Navas, Jovetic, Aguero.