One of the unlikeliest stalemates of the season played out at St Mary’s on Saturday.
The side with the weekend’s lowest probability of a clean sheet (according to the bookies) held Manchester City to a goalless draw, much to the irritation of Fantasy managers who made Kevin De Bruyne (£9.6m) the most-bought player of Gameweek 36 and those making a late, leak-influenced Erling Haaland (£14.8m) transfer. And Ruben Dias (£5.5m).
🗣️ "Frustrating to play a team like them {Southampton}, they don't even try to play"
Man City's Ruben Dias criticises Southampton for their tactics after the goalless draw at St Mary's 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KD7wV62vyn
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 10, 2025
Southampton 0-0 Manchester City kicks off our Gameweek 36 Scout Notes.
MARMOUSH “MAYBE SHOULD HAVE PLAYED MORE MINUTES”
Omar Marmoush (£7.6m) dropped to the bench for the first time since Gameweek 28 on Saturday.
It wasn’t just Haaland and De Bruyne getting the nod ahead of him but also Phil Foden (£9.1m) and James McAtee (£4.6m), who took up the wide roles that Marmoush has occupied in recent weeks.
The Egyptian had to make do with a late substitute appearance but came as close as any City player to scoring, crashing a 90th-minute effort against the woodwork.
Pep Guardiola applauded Marmoush’s impact after full-time, even saying he may have merited more minutes.
“Well, they can play together. They played this season before the injury from Erling. He is a player like has to move close to the box. The impact has been really good since he arrived and the impact today was really good. Maybe he should have played more minutes because the fact that his creativity, you know, close to the box, is really important.” – Pep Guardiola on where he sees Omar Marmoush featuring now that Erling Haaland has returned
This was another match in which Guardiola picked two from three of Haaland, De Bruyne and Marmoush. He is yet to start all three of them together – not that he was aware of that fact.
“Yeah, the problem actually is to keep the balance right. So, the second half, I started a different approach defensively and I didn’t like it. I had to change again, to bring Bernardo in the middle and Phil outside. So, there’s a balance, but I didn’t know this subject (that he hadn’t started all three together)! But just three games left and we’ll see what happens.” – Pep Guardiola, when asked if it is possible to start Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush in the same team
Guardiola mentioned after full-time that he selected the likes of Foden and Rico Lewis (£4.3m) for their ability in “small spaces”. It’s a bit of an understatement to say that Bournemouth are a bit more front-foot than Southampton, so Marmoush may find himself back in favour come Gameweek 37.
Above: Bournemouth are ranked second for pressures in the opposition half per 90 minutes this season
PEP ON HAALAND’S FITNESS
Haaland has encountered frustration against Southampton once already this season. At least he scored then.
He didn’t even register a shot here until second-half stoppage time, although he had come close to stabbing in Foden’s inswinging free-kick and should have claimed an assist when attempting to square the ball to substitute Nico O’Reilly (£4.9m).
It’d be too easy to call his performance rusty given the two-month absence. It’d be fair to call it borderline anonymous.
But his peripheral display was as much to do with Southampton’s suffocating tactics, and the ability of City as a collective to budge the parked bus, as his lack of match practice.
Nevertheless, Guardiola agreed that it would take the big Norwegian time to get back to his best.
“Yeah, of course [he needs more time to get up to speed].
“I have one week to think about [whether he starts in the FA Cup final]. I don’t know. The truth is, he has been five or six weeks off. It’s not like Phil, for example, like Savinho, like in two, three, four training sessions, he’s fit. He’s a big man and he needs maybe a little bit more time but was really good today to play 97 minutes. I could not expect to play as much.” – Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland
BIG BABY CRIES OVER RUSK
Above: The average position maps for Southampton v Manchester City
As mentioned in the intro, Dias threw his toys out of the pram after full-time.
Southampton’s display was a deliberately ultra-defensive one, not pressed back by the City machine but inviting their visitors to come and break them down. They couldn’t.
“That was our aim, we did want to be frustrating today.” – Simon Rusk
For all of City’s possession (70%+) and shots (26), they didn’t carve out one Opta-defined ‘big chance’. Other than Marmoush’s effort that hit the bar, Bernardo Silva (£6.1m) went closest with an attempt that was cleared off the line.
The shot table below sums the game up, with two defenders and two of the less attacking midfielders in the top five. Saints would have been content to see Manuel Akanji (£5.3m), Dias and Mateo Kovacic (£5.4m) wind up ambitious shots, while most of De Bruyne’s efforts came from distance. In essence, after plenty of keep-ball and little incision, someone at the back of the pack would just chance their arm.
Despite being far from his best, De Bruyne did end up as Saturday’s top-scoring Premier League player for non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI, 1.07).
It was worth noting that Josko Gvardiol (£6.4m) was finally back at left-back, too, with Akanji coming in at centre-half and O’Reilly benched. No coincidence that his first open-play shots since Gameweek 23 arrived at St Mary’s.
Southampton’s next task: spoil the Goodison farewell party. Interestingly, since Simon Rusk took charge, only four clubs have allowed fewer big chances (eight) than the Saints.
