Phil Parkinson has a Wrexham problem Southampton are perfectly set up to punish

You've got to feel for Phil Parkinson on Friday night in East London, watching a defence he had spent a month sorting out fall apart in front of him. West Ham scored six. Wrexham had shipped five in the whole league season up to kick-off.

Losing a centre-back to a hamstring injury for two months would hurt any side. But for Wrexham, it impacts them in a particular way. Parkinson plays a back three and has been leaning on the same two players to hold it together since August.

The third shirt in that defence keeps changing hands. Callum Doyle and Dom Hyam had played every league minute between them. Cleworth had only just won the other spot back after an Achilles problem wrecked his pre-season.

Max Cleworth's hamstring and the men left standing

Zak Vyner is the only player Parkinson has used with any regularity, and mostly as a utility man rather than a centre-back.

Joe Worrall arrived from Burnley on deadline day and played in the defeat at West Ham. Academy graduate Aaron James has never played Championship football at all, yet Parkinson keeps insisting his squad is deep enough, which is just about the only thing a manager in that position can say out loud.

There is better news for Parkinson in midfield. Ben Sheaf is fit after a calf problem that cost him pre-season. Josh Windass came through the Burnley game with nothing worse than a knock, although he was an unused sub against the Hammers.

Cyle Larin against a rebuilt back three

Southampton visit the Racecourse Ground on Saturday afternoon. The Saints have scored eighteen goals in seven league games, a tally beaten only by the side that just put six past Wrexham.

If that wasn't bad enough news for Parkinson's Wrexham, the division's leading scorer will be positively skipping on to the Saints bus on Friday morning.

Finn Azaz sits alongside him at the top of the goal involvement list, which should be the detail to worry Parkinson most, because Southampton do not simply lump it at a back three.

Azaz picks his moment between the lines, Kuryu Matsuki and Léo Scienza stretch the wing-backs, and Larin attacks the shoulder of whoever ends up on the last line of that defence.

Wrexham's only solace might come from the Saints' lacklustre away form, and if Southampton's promotion push is going to be serious that will need to change. Wrexham have drawn four league games already and are perfectly capable of making Saturday difficult for freescoring Saints.

Parkinson has a massive gap to fill in his defence, and four days to work out who will fill it. Southampton will aim to exploit that weakness with the league's most potent weapon.

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