Unavailable:
Southampton – No Players Currently Unavailable
Manchester City – Touré, Silva
Of all the teams to fall foul of Ronald
Koeman’s tactical tinkering in the last couple of years, Manchester City have
not been one of them. When they arrived at St Mary’s last season, Southampton
were challenging at the top of the table, and were about to face three
self-appointed big boys within the course of eight days. They fell at the first
hurdle. City are not well known for being tactically resolute, but Manuel
Pellegrini’s men pushed Saints’ wing men high and quickly – the hosts simply
couldn’t cope, and repeatedly lost possession. Pellegrini was cunning, and his
players rammed three goals past Fraser Forster into the Chapel End goal.
Yet, City are rarely so adept at carrying out
plans such as these – particularly without the guidance of leaders like Vincent
Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta. Meanwhile, Joe Hart may be screaming, and
screeching, and pulling out his hair which is so beautifully maintained by his
Head & Shoulders, but his impact as a senior player is obviously reduced in
goal. Alan Pardew noted a similar problem in his tenure at St Mary’s when Dean
Hammond replaced Kelvin Davis as team captain. You rarely see one of Pellegrini’s
men visibly rallying others and enforcing a plan, as opposed to giving it to
Sergio Agüero and hoping for the best. To be fair, that often works. With Real
Madrid to face at the Bernabéu in midweek though, the Chilean will no doubt
ring the changes, possibly leaving his team somewhat dishevelled. The
organisation that earned them a heartening stalemate at the Etihad could be
left at the wayside, and that should play into Saints’ hands.
However, this will clearly be a tougher challenge
than the one that faced them at Villa Park last weekend. That was a mere stroll
through the various claret shirts who were supposed to be marking them. Four
goals were notched with Saints barely getting out of second gear. Villa meanwhile,
don’t even need an MOT. The car needs to be scrapped. Immediately. No, this
will be one of those times where Koeman has to don his tactical cap, and figure
out where to hit City, and when. Three words spring to mind. Quick. Direct.
Central. It may not be pretty, but it could well be effective enough to stifle
the visitors on Sunday. This game was made for Shane Long and Sadio Mané to
disturb a backline that will probably be without Vincent Kompany.
It would be fair to speculate that the
Dutchman will revive the 5-3-2 formation for this game with the strength of
City’s attack initially, and see how the game pans out. If his attack is
suffering, he has a complete squad to choose from, and change his side at any
given moment with a quick alteration of shape. The Saints boss will most likely
believe that only a win will be necessary to usurp and Liverpool and West Ham
in the hunt for Europa League football, and the added firepower of Jay
Rodriguez and Charlie Austin could force the issue from the bench.
Key Battles
Wanyama
v Delph:
This will be a test of Manuel Pellegrini’s squad, and one man who will be
desperate for a game is Fabian Delph. Predictably, Delph has been unable to
bridge the colossal gap of talent that exists between Villa and City, and
although Fernando and Fernandinho do not fit into the world-class talent
bracket at the Etihad, they are superior to the Leeds academy graduate. An “up
and at ‘em” attitude does not make a top Premier League performer, but Delph
will want to prove naysayers such as myself wrong ahead of the Euro’s. Victor
Wanyama’s role will be crucial in this game – breaking up City’s attack and get
Saints on their way. The Kenyan is often at his most active when the opponent
is on the front foot, therefore Sunday’s game should see him perform well.
Long v
Mangala: A
City fan once told me that if you are in the Champions League then you will be
forced to pay through the roof for any sort of marquee signing. Eliaquim
Mangala is a stunning example of this – a mere £30m for a player who
permanently looks uncomfortable and awkward at the back. That encounter at St
Mary’s last season was a glaring example of his inabilities. In a match where
his team were so incredibly at ease, the Frenchman still managed to pick up a
senseless couple of bookings to earn an early wander to the away dressing room.
He will most likely be given an opportunity on Sunday. Ronald Koeman’s message
to Shane Long should be clear. Stick to him, and then run off his back – every single
time. City will most likely play with a high line, and the Irishman could
wriggle away from the centre-back from the off.
Possible
Line-ups
Southampton:
Forster
– Soares, Van Dijk, Fonte (C), Bertrand, Targett – Wanyama, Romeu, S. Davis –
Mané, Long
Stekelenburg, Yoshida, Clasie, Rodriguez,
Tadić, Pellè, Austin
Manchester
City: Hart
– Zabaleta (C), Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov – Fernandinho, Delph – Navas, Nasri,
Sterling – Iheanacho
Caballero, Sagna,
Kompany, Fernando, Bony, De Bruyne, Clichy
No comments:
Post a Comment