Southampton's expected lineup to take a massive Carabao Cup win over Stoke City
- Russell Martin's side face Championship side Stoke City in the Carabao Cup fourth round.
- Southampton's expected lineup to take a massive win over Stoke City in the Carabao Cup.
By Aakash Desai
Defence
Charlie Taylor gave a good defensive performance in the previous Manchester City match as well as the Everton game and thus, is highly likely to be started against Stoke City as well. Russell Martin can also decide to bring Ryan Manning as a second half substitute at the left-back position if the Saints struggle to create some goalscoring opportunities against the Championship side.
Nathan Wood can return to the centre-back position for this Carabao Cup fixture as well, after his rock-solid defending against Everton in the second round. Alongside Wood, Taylor Harwood-Bellis should be started as the 22-year-old is Southampton's defensive leader in the ongoing season.
Harwood-Bellis gave a heroic central defender performance against his former side Manchester City by making nine clearances and the England U21 captain will want to keep a first clean-sheet this season against Stoke City. Kyle Walker-Peters will again play at the right-back position and the versatile fullback would be keen to register a few goal contributions in this match as well.
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Martin should substitute Walker-Peters early in the second half to bring a young defender such as Juan Larios, in order to avoid Walker-Peters getting an injury during Yukinari Sugawara's absence.