Southampton continue their fight to finish in the top half of the table when they host an in-form Hull City. The hosts will try to overcome their 4-2 defeat at the hands of league leaders Chelsea in the last match. Southampton have gone through various ups and downs and will be preparing for the game on the backdrop of their back to back defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea.
Despite their poor performance Puel had some positives in those games and will try to utilise those as much as possible. Hull is a completely different team under Marco Silva and the Saints have to put their best effort to secure three points in this match. Southampton’s season has been packed with unexpected situations. They lost in the EFL Cup final to Manchester United and are pretty comfortably sitting at the ninth position with 40 points in their tally.
Predicted 4-1-4-1 Southampton Lineup VS Hull City
Defence
Fraser Forster will have a daunting task on his hands to stop the Hull attack. The gigantic keeper needs to show more maturity in these types of matches.
After 1951, Hull have never beaten the Saints at the St Mary’s. The onus will be on Maya Yoshida who has acted like a rock in the Saints defence. Hull have been in good form of late and Yoshida needs to make sure they won’t be able to penetrate the Saints defence.
Jack Stephens will partner Yoshida in the Southampton backline.
Ryan Bertrand has transformed into one of the most complete left backs of the Premier League. The 27-year-old is defensively very sound and could be very dangerous with his overlapping runs through the flanks.
Cedric Soares will complete the Saints backline.
Midfield
Oriol Romeu will offer the much-needed bite to the midfield. The defensive midfielder will try to protect his defence by using his defensive nous.
James Ward-Prowse is still regarded as one of the most potent midfielders in the Premier League. He will try to rotate the ball to have the possession in their favour.
Steven Davis would stretch his play to increase pressure on the Tigers.
Attack
Sofiane Boufal has been very encouraging in the limited number of games he has played. The Moroccan international could be a worrying thing for the Tigers.
Dusan Tadic needs to sharpen his attacking attributes. He has been the lifeline in attack and needs to stitch together the play in the final third.
Manolo Gabbiadini has shown glimpses of his form and will lead the side’s attack.
