Southampton’s ideal January transfer window roundtable – by Ed Waugh

Q1: What do you make of Saints’ squad depth at the moment and do they have enough options to see this season through and keep up their current form?

A: The bench against Liverpool was a good indication of how deep the Southampton squad; in not very. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s only experienced player on the bench was Shane Long, to which the Irishman is past his best form it would seem – given that the former-Hull player didn’t make it onto the pitch.

There has been some concern that the full-back position lacks options outside of the first-team with Kyle Walker-Peters being the trusted go to option; and despite Yan Valery showing promise in previous seasons – it would seem Hasenhuttl doesn’t trust the young Frenchman defensively, opting to play him as a winger when he played against Liverpool.

With Saints playing a high-press game, injuries and suspensions are likely, which has been very much the case this current campaign with Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu, Jannik Vestergaard and Danny Ings and others all missing games as a result. Consistency will be key in keeping up the current form, however with a tight fixture schedule; it’ll be difficult for Saints to keep turning out high-level performances if the starting line-up is rotated heavily as a result of lack-of-depth.