WHAT WE LEARNED
FRUSTRATING FORMATION FINALLY WORKS
City came into this game on the back of two frustrating draws, which produced just one goal. That lack of creativity isn’t just because Pep Guardiola used two defensive midfielders in both starting line-ups, but it can’t have helped. So the sight of Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan on the teamsheet at St Mary’s won’t have filled fans with much confidence.
But this time, Guardiola gave Gundogan more freedom to get forward, especially in the absence of a recognised striker. Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne were a more traditional midfield pair, with Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Ferran Torres the front three, all rotating positions in certain situations.
It was an approach that gave Guardiola a lovely winning goal, and showed how useful a second forwardthinking central midfielder can be.
BERNARDO INSTANTLY IMPROVES CITY ATTACK
With Ferran Torres lively again, supported by Sterling and Bernardo, City’s fluidity in attack got the opening goal that eventually won the game. Central to that movement was the return of Bernardo Silva, who hasn’t played in the Premier League since the Tottenham game.
Bernardo brought the best out of De Bruyne and Sterling, and the space afforded to City from Southampton’s high pressing allowed them to express themselves more. It might not have resulted in more goals at St Mary’s, but this was a system that was much more like a City side on their way back to their best.
GUARDIOLA STILL DOESN’T KNOW HIS BEST BACK FOUR
The teamsheet at Southampton displayed the sixth different back four in the last six league games. Not since the Liverpool and Spurs games in November have City kept with the same back line. In the following five games, John Stones and Ruben Dias have partnered together four times, but their full-back colleagues have changed in each fixture.
Joao Cancelo has switched sides in each of the last four games, with Stones and Dias also alternating which side of the middle two they operate in. The clean sheets speak for themselves, and it’s good to have some consistency, especially as Aymeric Laporte wasn’t deemed fit enough to make the squad and hasn’t featured since the Spurs defeat. However Laporte will need re-integrating at some point – an ever-changing back four hardly gives Guardiola rhythm.