da betway： Southampton welcome Huddersfield to St Mary’s this Saturday with the wind in their sails ahead of this FA Cup third round tie.
da prosport bet： Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side have taken ten points from a possible 12 across their last four Premier League games, recording wins over Aston Villa, Chelsea and Tottenham while also drawing against Crystal Palace.
It represents a remarkable turnaround from the 9-0 defeat to Leicester earlier in the season, with the Saints now sat in 12th with 25 points to their name.
However, Championship side Huddersfield will presumably be looking to cause an upset, and having just played four games in 11 days, Hasenhuttl would be wise to rest some players – let’s take a look at the XI that Southampton should use against the Terriers…
Compared to the last outing against Tottenham, we think Hasenhuttl should make nine changes for the game against Huddersfield.
That may seem like quite a lot, but a few players have barely featured since the 9-0 defeat to Leicester and are in need of game time.
Maya Yoshida, in particular, has played just five minutes since that humiliating loss, while Jannik Vestergaard hasn’t featured since a 2-1 defeat to Everton on November 9th – Yan Valery has also played just 89 Premier League minutes since the Leicester game.
We think summer signing Kevin Danso should get some game-time against Huddersfield as well, seeing as the Austrian hasn’t featured at all since November 2nd.
In goal, Angus Gunn should start over Alex McCarthy as he hasn’t played a single minute since the 9-0 loss.
Further up the field, we feel that Oriol Romeu should come into the XI to get some much needed match-time under his belt, as he has recently lost his place in midfield – the Spaniard has still made 12 Premier League starts this term though, so Hasenhuttl must think he is capable.
The former RB Leipzig boss said that he does want to make a few changes given the demanding festive period, although he also wants to play an XI which will challenge Huddersfield, so the inclusion of tricky wingers Sofiane Boufal and Moussa Djenepo in our predicted team will provide the creativity needed in order to hurt the Terriers.
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In attack, Danny Ings should be rested after the tiring festive schedule, so Che Adams – who Hasenhuttl said is not leaving the club this month – should be handed a start alongside Michael Obafemi.
In other news, this Serie A update proves that Southampton were always punching above their weight in this transfer battle…