Southampton narrowly defeated Fulham 1-0 in the League Cup game in mid-week, making it two consecutive wins, having defeated Brighton & Hove Albion over the weekend in the Premier League. The Saints welcome Manchester United to St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, who lost to Crystal Palace last weekend in the Premier League. Let us take a look at the predicted Southampton lineup for this game.
TEAM NEWS
Nathan Redmond, Moussa Djenepo and Michael Obafemi will all miss the clash against the Red Devils. This comes as a blow as all three of them have been involved in goals since the start of the season and would have come handy against an under-confident Manchester United side.
PREDICTED SOUTHAMPTON LINEUP VS MANCHESTER UNITED (3-5-2)
Goalkeeper
Angus Gunn should return to the team after having being replaced by Alex McCarthy in the game against Fulham. Gunn has started the first three Premier League games of the season for the Saints.
Defence
Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek kept a clean sheet against Brighton last time around in the Premier League, and they will most likely start once again but might have Danso playing alongside them in a back 3 in the Southampton lineup. Bednarek played 60 minutes against Fulham while Vestergaard was given a rest.
Ryan Bertrand was struggling with injury but found no mention in Hasenhuttl’s briefing, signalling he could make a comeback. This could potentially see him play at left wing-back while Yan Valery should return to the Southampton lineup on the opposite flank.
Midfield
Saints captain Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg could return to a midfield position after playing at left-back against Fulham in the League Cup; he will be joined by Oriol Romeu in midfield. James Ward-Prowse could play on the right of a midfield 3 and will look to carry on his good form against Man United.
Sofiane Boufal has impressed over the last week and could well be handed a chance but Ralph might alternatively look to use him from the bench in the second half.
Attack
Danny Ings and Che Adams did not start the game against Fulham, with the former coming on in the game, while the latter was not even in the squad. Both players could return to the Southampton lineup against Manchester United.
