Southampton predicted XI v Swansea with one change Eckert may not make

Let's start with the eleven for a change:

Peretz; Bree, Wood, Schlotterbeck, Welington; Downes, Ward-Prowse; Fellows, Azaz, Scienza; Larin.

Two changes from Lincoln, and one of them is the one Eckert will resist.

Tom Fellows for Kuryu Matsuki on the right

Matsuki started at Lincoln ahead of Fellows and offered next to nothing going forward. He blazed over early in the second half after the front three had worked an opening. By the hour, Southampton were still hunting the goal that would have settled it.

Now think about what Swansea will probably do tonight.

Vitor Matos has built a side that defends in a block and dares you to be patient. That is precisely the puzzle Lincoln set on Saturday and Southampton failed to solve it. So patience is not the answer twice in four days, especially at home. Somebody has to run at a full-back and make something happen.

Fellows does that. He got to the byline to set up Leo Scienza against West Ham. He scored as a substitute in the 5-1 win over Millwall, which is two pieces of evidence more than Matsuki has offered in a fortnight.

The other change could be Nathan Wood back in for Jack Stephens. That one is closer to a coin toss, because Eckert framed the Lincoln selection as managing bodies through a heavy run of games, so the captain may simply keep the shirt. Keven Schlotterbeck is not moving either way. Zach Abbott could make his debut if Tonda Eckert feels he has seen enough in training.

What Vitor Matos is walking into

Picture the Swansea head coach's week. His best centre-back, Cameron Burgess, is out for the season with a cruciate injury. Gonçalo Franco has not played since May.

Then there is his captain. Ben Cabango has only just got back into the squad. The two lads who replaced him have played so well that Matos went public calling one of them brilliant.

Ji-sung Eom is the other player on his mind. A goal and an assist in successive games, and a flight out to the Asian Games on Wednesday, so St Mary's is his last night in that shirt for a while.

A top-of-the-table side, then, quietly held together with tape and playing its most creative man on a goodbye. Saints Marching thought the Lincoln substitutions cost Southampton a win they had earned.

The lesson from that afternoon has nothing to do with personnel at all. It is about what Eckert does at 1-0 on the hour.

Flynn Downes has already had his say about those dropped points, and Saints Marching covered his rallying call in full.

Southampton have scored in every league game they have played. Swansea have conceded one. Something will have to give tonight at St Mary's, and a right winger who beats people is the likeliest way for Saints to break down the Swans.

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