Pep Guardiola must include one particular Manchester City player in his starting XI for this weekend’s Premier League match against Fulham.
The Blues are just three victories away from regaining the Premier League title and becoming the first side ever to win it for a fourth time in a row.
Last weekend saw the Manchester club beat Wolves 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium thanks to four goals from Erling Haaland and one from Julian Alvarez.
This time around, the Treble winners will travel down south to take on Fulham at Craven Cottage before their two remaining games of the campaign against Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.
Looking ahead to what is another vital game in the title race, we have identified one figure in City’s squad that should be in Guardiola’s starting XI on Saturday.
Mateo Kovacic should start against Fulham
With Guardiola reportedly having a full-strength squad as City head into their final games of the season, which could see them add another Premier League title and FA Cup to their cabinet, one player that we feel should be in from the beginning against Fulham is Mateo Kovacic.
The midfielder has been in the starting XI for three of City’s four previous games, completing the full 90 minutes in three of those matches.
His latest appearance for the Manchester club, who paid £30m to sign him from Chelsea last summer, came during the 5-1 victory over Wolves last weekend.
During that game, Kovacic had 93 touches of the ball in total, accurately completing 73 of the 77 passes he attempted.
This gave him an overall passing accuracy percentage of 95%, the second-highest in the City team behind Kyle Walker (96%).
Kovacic has been City’s pass master this season
Across the entire campaign, the 30-year-old has registered a pass completion percentage of 93.7%, which is higher than any other player currently in the City squad.
With that in mind, having him on the pitch against Fulham could be a crucial way for City to make sure they keep possession of the ball and not allow the home side to have too many shots at goal which could dismantle the Manchester club’s title charge.