Cyle Larin should come back on the bench against QPR. Lewis Dobbin has earned another start up front, and Larin's last three matches give Eckert no reason to hurry him.
FotMob's marks for both men across the last four Southampton matches are below. A dash means he did not play, and Larin missed West Ham injured.
Fotmob ratings | Portsmouth (H) | Norwich (A) | Bolton (H) | West Ham (A) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cyle Larin | 6.6 | 6.2 | 5.9 | - |
Lewis Dobbin | - | 7.6 | 5.8 | 8.2 |
Larin's last three games
Early in the derby, Larin had the first clear sight of goal, and Portsmouth's recalled goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid made a decent save. James Bree scored the only goal of the game in the 20th minute.
At Norwich, Larin came on in the 70th minute with Kuryu Matsuki's early strike already deciding it. Three days later, against Bolton, he started, failed to reach a Léo Scienza cross, and put a deflected effort over the bar before Eckert replaced him with Dobbin before half-time.
Three games, no goals. Larin still leads the club with seven, Saints Marching reported, so nobody is writing him off.
But a striker returning from injury arrives without match sharpness, and Saturday's visitors are too difficult an opponent to simply gift Larin minutes. QPR sit eighth, with a back line that shares the division's best defensive record in the division.
The QPR plan
Dobbin missed twice at Bolton, firing over when Scienza sent him clean through, then shinning a centre wide late on. Seven days later he scored Southampton's third at West Ham in the 34th minute, and FotMob made him its player of the match.
That is the form going into Saturday. Southampton also scored twice inside the first 11 minutes at West Ham with Larin watching from elsewhere.
At Norwich, Dobbin started and was replaced by Larin in the 70th minute, so the two have swapped places across three weeks, and the West Ham game was the first time Dobbin held the shirt for most of a match against a side of that quality.
Saints Marching wrote after the game that Larin's repeated injuries could leave Dobbin as the main striker for QPR.
Eckert's words suggest he wants both men in the picture. If both come through their checks, Dobbin starts and Larin waits.
There is a second game close behind, too. West Brom away on Tuesday could let Eckert build Larin's minutes across two matches instead of one.
A QPR defence that has chased Southampton's wide players for an hour will not welcome the arrival of a striker with seven goals, and Eckert will have Larin fresh when that time comes. It also takes a fit Larin out of a 90-minute test he may not be ready for.
The verdict: Dobbin starts against QPR, Larin sits on the bench, and Eckert uses him when the game stretches.
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