Southampton: Hasenhuttl confirms changes to his team for FA Cup

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed that he will make changes to his team for this weekend’s FA Cup tie against Huddersfield Town.

Like other teams, Saints played a lot of football in December and made limited changes whilst preparing for seven games in 27 days.

With the struggle that his players have gone through to secure some vital results over the past month, Hasenhuttl looks ready to switch things up tomorrow.

Speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference, the Austrian said:

"“The team will look a little bit different at the weekend. How different, we have to look at how they feel. They are tired at the moment, and this is normal. We have again only a few days to the next game, but the message is a clear one – we want to get to the next round. The FA Cup is a very important competition for us, like the Carabao Cup. We always played with the best possible team in the Carabao Cup. In some positions I have more alternatives and in some positions I have none, but we will find a team that is able to win against Huddersfield at home.”"

There are players in the Saints squad who haven’t had as much game time as they perhaps would have liked due to the form of others ahead of them.

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In goal, Angus Gunn may get a start after falling behind Alex McCarthy in the pecking order earlier in the season. Goalkeeper is normally an area of the team that can be changed without huge disruption overall.

Defenders such as Yan Valery, Maya Yoshida and Jannik Vestergaard may also get a chance to prove their worth – even though it may prove difficult for Hasenhuttl to break up the back four that has served him so well recently.

In midfield, Oriol Romeu has been cast aside in recent times and has fallen behind James Ward-Prowse and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Striker Che Adams and Michael Obafemi may also get a start after both performing well together at Chelsea.

Perhaps this weekend’s game will provide the perfect opportunity for some of the best crop of youngsters to be blooded on the senior stage.

Two to have been included in first-team squads under Hasenhuttl in the past have been Dan N’Lundulu – and striker show has scored regularly for the club’s youth teams – and Will Smallbone – who was on the bench for the draw with Crystal Palace recently.

Beating Huddersfield tomorrow would see Saints beating their efforts from last season’s FA Cup after they were knocked out through a replay with Derby County.