One year on from sensational debut, Liam Delap can threaten Raheem Sterling's Man City future

Lots of City fans have been calling out for Liam Delap to be give a chance as City's starting number nine.

There will be an unusually youthful appearance to the Manchester City side that lines up against Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

Due to a spate of injuries and the need to rest a few first-teamers ahead of a tough run of fixtures, Pep Guardiola admitted that he will call on a number of academy players as City look to win the competition for the fifth consecutive season.

Supporters at the Etihad Stadium will be hoping to catch a glimpse of young talents including Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and James McAtee, but one name is more eagerly anticipated than the rest.

Liam Delap enjoyed a dream senior team debut at this stage of the competition last season and is expected to be involved against Wycombe. Should he do so, he could put Raheem Sterling's place in Guardiola's future plans under serious threat.

Delap, son of former Stoke City midfielder Rory, exploded into the first-team picture last season by scoring an excellent goal in a 2-1 Carabao Cup round three win against Bournemouth. Standing at 6' 1" and built like an old-fashioned centre-forward, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Delap' game is all about pace and power, but with his debut goal he showed that that is absolutely not the case.

Running onto a clever Phil Foden through ball, the then 17-year-old won the foot race with his marker before rifling the ball first-time with his 'weaker' left foot into the top corner. That strike remains Delap's only goal for the senior team, but everybody at the club whole-heartedly believes that he will score tens, if not hundreds, over the coming years.

Without wanting to hyperbolize, he looks like the complete striker. Finishing, heading, pace, technical ability, playmaking; he has the lot.

Last season Delap scored a remarkable 24 goals in 20 Premier League 2 appearances for the City U23s, a return that clearly marks him out as a cold-blooded goalscorer. If there's one thing that Guardiola's side lack at the moment, it's precisely that.

Having missed the whole of pre-season through injury and only returning to U23 action on Saturday - he scored in a 4-2 win against Crystal Palace - Delap may start his Tuesday evening on the bench, with Ferran Torres likely to get the nod. If Delap does come off the bench to score, or keeps scoring for the U23s at a prodigious rate, then it could give an indication of what Sterling's future at the Etihad Stadium will look like.

Despite dazzling performances for England, Sterling has struggled for form in a City shirt since earlier this year. He lost his place in Guardiola's preferred starting XI to Foden, and now with £100million man Jack Grealish in the mix, it would take a significant upturn in form to see him reclaim his favoured left-wing spot.

With Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez the go-to options on the right-wing, the number nine or false-nine roles seem to be the obvious routes for Sterling to nail down a place in the team. Ferran was chosen to lead the line in City's opening games of the season, but against Southampton on Saturday, Sterling was finally given a chance. He didn't take it.

While it would be grossly unfair to lay the blame for City's lacklustre performance solely at Sterling's door, he did not play well. He struggled to stamp any authority on the game, rarely troubling the Southampton centre-backs as City laboured to a 0-0 draw.

That VAR denied him of a moment of redemption in the dying moments - Sterling was marginally offside when he converted the rebound of a Foden header - summed up an afternoon when nothing really worked for him or City.