Manchester City will face off against Southampton at the St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday evening as they try to win and close the gap to Arsenal at the top of the Premier League standings. The Mancunian side managed to earn a dominant 4-1 win over Liverpool recently which will give them a lot of momentum ahead of this game.
Pep Guardiola will probably opt for a 3-2-2-3 formation and could make some tweaks to his first XI for this game. Erling Haaland is a major doubt for this game, so Julian Alvarez could get a chance to lead the line for Man City in the final third.
3-2-2-3 Manchester City Predicted Lineup To Face Southampton
Defence
Ederson will function in goal for the visitors after he allowed one goal in his last league outing.
Guardiola could opt for a back three of Aymeric Laporte, Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias they try to keep things solid at the back during the 90 minutes. All three of them need to be at their best if Man City are to secure a clean sheet at the St. Mary’s Stadium this weekend.
Nathan Ake will be available for selection on the bench as he offers cover for the defensive positions.
Midfield
Rodri and John Stones will anchor the midfield for Man City as they try to dominate the ball at the centre of the park and feed some decent through balls to the front players.
Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne will get the freedom to act as the free-flowing attacking midfielders in the Southampton half.
Kalvin Phillips has to settle for a place on the bench and might come on to influence the game in the second half if required.
Attack
Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva will get a chance to stretch the opposition defence out on the wide areas. Grealish is enjoying a rich vein of form at the moment and would be eager to make a difference for Man City this weekend.
Julian Alvarez will spearhead Guardiola’s attack up top if Erling Haaland fails to recover in time for this game.
Riyad Mahrez will be named on the bench as he waits for his opportunity to shine in the latter stages if Guardiola opts to call upon his services.
