Man City are bidding to progress to the last four of the Carabao Cup against Southampton this evening.
Manchester City are bidding to book their place in the last four of this season’s Carabao Cup, as they take on Southampton this evening.
Pep Guardiola clearly already has one eye on Saturday’s Manchester derby, with the City boss opting to leave Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Riyad Mahrez on the bench to begin with against Saints.
Julian Alvarez once again leads the line following his exploits against Chelsea on Sunday, with Phil Foden expected to drop deeper into a midfield role. Joao Cancelo, Kyle Walker and Sergio Gomez all start in defence.
With Manchester United and Newcastle already through after their respective victories on Tuesday evening, fans will be waiting with baited breathe to see the outcome of tonight’s semi-final draw, should Guardiola’s men progress.
Fans have since taken to social media to react to the City starting XI, questioning the formation deployed on the South Coast.
Pep Guardiola responds to Jack Grealish admission over Man City tactics
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was asked about the difficulty of adapting to his team
Pep Guardiola insists it is simple to adapt at Manchester City.
Jack Grealish admitted after the Chelsea league game last week that he had found it more difficult than he had thought to change from a relatively free role that he had at Aston Villa to a different system at the Etihad. Kalvin Phillips has had to wait six months for a competitive start since moving from Leeds, with the England international set to start in the League Cup game at Southampton.
Grealish is not alone in struggling to shine in his first year under Guardiola, with many signings including Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez having quiet debut seasons with the Premier League champions. But while the manager accepts that his football can be very different from that of others, he still believes that it is simple to understand – as Grealish and others have learnt.
“For me it’s not hard, the way we play is so simple: everyone run without the ball to help each other and be in positions to get the ball in better conditions,” he said. “I would say I understand Jack because Aston Villa said ‘do whatever you want’.
“Here is completely different, you stay in position and the ball comes where you want. We spoke a few times with Jack about positions and football tactics and he understand completely, he is so comfortable with that but it is not difficult.”
