Southampton have signed a number of young talented players from Manchester City’s academy in recent seasons. Promising goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia and on-loan stars Samuel Edozie and Shea Charles have been one of the best signings made by the Saints in the previous few years.
Alongside them, England U21 captain and Southampton's centre-back Taylor Harwood-Bellis has also gone strength to strength since joining the Saints on an initial loan move last season. The central defender quickly formed a rock-solid defensive partnership alongside Jan Bednarek, helping Russell Martin's side to keep two clean-sheets in the three Championship playoff matches.
Ex-Manchester City star opens up on facing Pep Guardiola's defending Champions
His performances led him to be an integral part of the Southampton defence and the Saints decided to sign him permanently for around £20 million transfer fee in the summer transfer window. In the previous two matches, Harwood-Bellis has helped in organising the Southampton defence, however, collective mistakes in a few key moments have eluded Russell Martin's side of their first Premier League win.
Now, the next match is against defending Champions Manchester City where a win seems highly unlikely, thus, Russell Martin's side will aim to take a clean-sheet and secure an important point from the ninth league match. Moreover, this will be the first time when Harwood-Bellis would face his former club since joining the Saints and the 22-year-old would want to keep the defensive mistakes aside to deny his former club from scoring a lot of goals.
Speaking about facing his former team Manchester City, Harwood-Bellis said,
"We have a big game next. It’s one of the hardest games of the season, away at City. We will prepare for that. We have got to keep going. There are games and points to play for."Taylor Harwood-Bellis
Despite knowing the significant task of keeping a clean-sheet against Manchester City, Harwood-Bellis is willing to give a defensive masterclass to build the foundation for an important result from this match. A big task for Harwood-Bellis would be to defend against Premier League Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland, and Harwood-Bellis as well as the Southampton defence wouldn't want to repeat their previous mistakes again in this away game.
Now, it remains to be seen whether manager Russell Martin makes a few defensive changes for this match to form a more reliable defence against Manchester City.