Buendia pushing, Ings and Watkins to start again - Aston Villa predicted XI vs Southampton

Steven Gerrard revealed how it was always his and Aston Villa's plan to exploit Brighton's back three last weekend but, looking ahead, the manager will have a different task to tackle against Southampton.

The Saints are in stupendous form losing just once in 2022 so far and, more recently, have won three of their last four against Spurs, Everton and Norwich.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has always kept faith with his 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 system at St Mary's and it'll be the same shape when he lines up against Villa on Saturday.

As for Gerrard, he changed his tactics for the first time in a while against Brighton and it paid dividends with Matty Cash and Ollie Watkins scoring in what was a comfortable 2-0 win.

The head coach dropped Emi Buendia for the first time in 10 fixtures at The Amex - but Gerrard has said how the Argentinian could well come back in on Saturday.

"Listen, we decided to go with one No.10 and two No.9s because we wanted the goals on the pitch with Danny and Ollie," Gerrard outlined. "We wanted to really go at their outside centre-backs, out of possession but also making it about them in possession as well.

"I think Coutinho's performance justified my decision to play Phil. I thought he was outstanding, not just with the ball but out of it. He was really selfless for the team.

"The game and the substitutions require different things so it was nothing personal but Buendia's fit and good to go."

Gerrard added: "We had three or four different focuses this week. One was unforced turnovers in the middle of the pitch. Another one was trying to be more ruthless and creative in the final third to create more chances for ourselves.

"A lot of the focuses and the things through the week the players carried out and delivered