Ronald Koeman has spoken of how the game against Aston Villa where he made a rare decision to make wholesale changes to the line up has given hm food for thought, but he will play his best side on Sunday.

The players who came in on Wednesday night performed admirably with Matt Targett, Maya Yoshida, Steven Caulker, Juanmi and Romeu all having decent games.

Ronald Koeman admitted that he is now well aware that there is competition for places, but that will not deter him in playing his best side on Sunday.

“What we saw [on Wednesday] was that we have a lot of competition in our squad, which you like to have as a manager,” said Koeman.

“The best XI will start on Sunday. Tomorrow we have our last training session and then you make the final decision for Sunday.”

However I think that the manager already knows most of what he considers his best side, I expect the normal back four of Soares, Van Dijk, Fonte & Bertrand, in midfield there is scope for change especially in the centre, however I think it will be Tadic, Wanyama, Clasie, Davis & Mane, with of course Pelle up front.

That will leave a very strong bench and the real competition for places will be on there, indeed even taking into account that Shane Long & Jay Rodriguez are both going to be missing through injury, it will still be a bench of six outfield players that would probably be first choice were they in Bournemouth's squad and that probably highlights the difference between the two squads.

Photo: Action Images

1970 added 21:45 - Oct 31 I'm not get carried away bum-muth are here to tread right on our toes and make life difficult we should of beaten Leicester and didn't , don't get me wrong bum-muth are not Leicester but even so they will take full advantage of any nerves or individual errors, I hope we get a big score. not because they are fierce rivals but just to keep there noise about being better than us down coyr 4-0 saints

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aceofthebase added 22:31 - Oct 31 It quite offends me that 1970 is so disrespectful to our friends along the coast
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IWOZTHERE added 22:49 - Oct 31 Nice command of language and grammar 1970, did you make the name 'bum-mouth' up all by yourself?.... They're not Pompey, they've got a few gobby supporters, but there again , so have we! It's about us, grab hold of the game early on and maintain it. Three points keeps up the momentum, anything less and we're in danger of losing touch with our real rivals. Saints 3-1.

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BUCK added 11:02 - Nov 1 1970 tour an idiot. End of. We actually have respect for bournemouth amd o personally ha e a lot of respect for Eddie howe. He's a very young manager plying his style of play in the top league. Their not portsmouth so to disrespect our good neighbours makes you a first class idiot.
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BUCK added 11:03 - Nov 1 Damn predictive text. Makes me look like I'm illiterate lol.
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A1079 added 11:04 - Nov 1 1970, let our football and result do the talking not arrogant and needless name calling. We have caught a cold before and as you rightly point out, whoever, it is, there is no place for errors which as so often the case, can be costly. Bournemouth have done well and I personally have nothing against them. That does not mean I do not want to beat them any less than any other side. As IWOZ states, we need to keep in touch with those above us. On a separate note, I am afraid I don't take this stuff about Wednesday night from RK. He played a weakened side, either because he regards the Capital cup as a lower priority or he believed that Villa were not up to it, or both. We got away with it on Wednesday, in what was largely a poor game, low on entertainment and mainly because Villa were so awful. I can't help thinking that had we played a lower league side away from home, we would have come a cropper, in much the same way as we did at Sheff U.

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IWOZTHERE added 11:54 - Nov 1 Totally agree with A1079 about the Villa game. Got away with it. We've reached the stage where we should be fighting for silverware and this competition is our best chance.
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ChristchurchSaint added 12:07 - Nov 1 I think that RoKo has the sense to realise that this is a big game to us, pride is at stake and although we may want to see Bournemouth stay up, our priority today is 3 points.
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