Paul Merson has said that one specific Manchester City player should not be in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI for their match against Wolves.
After beating Nottingham Forest 2-0 last weekend, the Blues have just four Premier League games left to play this season.
The first of which will see them take on Wolves at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon in their penultimate home match of the campaign.
Prior to this game, one pundit shared his thoughts on how the Citizens could line up for this particular game as they look to take a step closer to potentially winning another Premier League title.
Merson thinks Guardiola should leave out £51m Man City star vs Wolves
In his latest column for Sportskeeda where he previewed and predicted the scores for this latest round of Premier League fixtures, Merson had this to say about which players he would put in City’s starting XI against Wolves and which one, in particular, he would leave out.
He said: “I’d persist with a front three of Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish despite [Erling] Haaland’s return and look to use the Norwegian as a super-sub.”
After picking up an injury during the Manchester club’s 1-1 draw against Real Madrid, which ultimately led to the club being knocked out of the Champions League on penalties, Haaland missed City’s FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea and their 4-0 league victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
The striker was then fit enough to be on the bench for last weekend’s away clash at Forest, which then saw him score the second goal of the game after coming on in the second half.
Should Erling Haaland start against Wolves?
Having done it last time out, it’s easy to see why Merson thinks having Haaland as an option from the bench could be a suitable idea for City this time around against Gary O’Neil’s side.
In our view, we feel that if the £51m centre-forward is fit enough to start the game, then he should be in from the beginning so he can hopefully help his side wrap up the three points as easily as they can.