Saints travel to Humberside knowing that they have to despatch the Tigers to show that they have the squad to mount another top six challenge.

To be blunt and with respect to Hull City supporters who will point to the turmoil the club went through in the summer with the loss of Steve Bruce and lack of transfers in, but their team is probably the worst in the division.

Yes Hull have 7 points, but 6 of those were picked up in the opening 2 games and since then they only have a solitary draw at Burnley to their name and that was two months ago.

That means that their position is a bit of a false representation of their actual level, Sunderland are widely given the accolade of being the worst Premier team, however they have gained more points in their last 8 games than Hull City

So Saints know that nothing less than a win is acceptable, Claude Puel has turned round a slow start in the League and has also managed the squad well in the midweek cup games, but it is fixtures like this that we have to go to and take all three points.

The big worry for Saints is injuries, but there is a depth in the squad and although some supporters will claim we are short of goals in the squad, I would disagree and say they are reading message boards and not watching games.

Up front we have plenty of goals in us, we just need to bring them out, Nathan Redmond has exactly the same number as Sadio Mane had at this stage last season and Charlie Austin is not far behind the total Pelle had, the issue with scoring is not these two or not replacing Mane & Pelle, the issue is that Shane Long has spent so long injured and not been able to find his form.

When Long returns that will add firepower, also Jay Rodriguez will score goals, the easy line to take is that he is not the player he was, undoubtably it will take time, but he is getting chances and not afraid to hit shots as he did against Inter fizzing one inches over the bar.

Then there is Boufal, again those writing off J Rod were writing off Boufal after an hour of the game against Sunderland, they gave him no leeway as he was not 100% match fit, but took to social media as the game went on to complain, again the lesson is give people a chance before writing them off.

So Saints just need to go to Hull and do what they do well, I would rather be playing them away at the moment than at home, if it was at St Mary's they would be parking the bus and that doesnt suit us, our style is about holding our final third and then breaking fast.

But at home they are going to have to come at us to try and end their bad run, that could be falling into our hands, Nathan Redmond has pace, Tadic has guile, both can score and create chances and Charlie Austin can certainly finish.

If these three aren't working then we will still have Jay Rodriguez and Sofiane Boufal to bring into the fray.

So Saints need to be confident, they need to be tight and they need to make sure they concentrate for 90 minutes and finally bury a few more chances and bring down that ratio of how many chances that we have, how many we get on target and how many we score.

I don't think Claude Puel will spring to many surprises in his line up, I think Ryan Bertrand at left back, harsh on Sam McQueen but Bertrand is still a better player, Jose Fonte will come in for Yoshida.

In the centre Romeo & Davis will be dead certs the only question being who slots into that third central spot, I think it will be Jordy Clasie in that the Dutchman did not feature on Thursday, although personally I would go for Ward Prowse who is perhaps the best option for spraying the ball around a bit.

The attacking trio should be Redmond, Austin & Tadic.

On the bench we will also have options, Clasie (or JWP), Boufal, Hojbjerg, Rodriguez, McQueen & Yoshida is a strong outfield bench and has variety and options in all departments.

Photo: Action Images

SaintBrock added 15:04 - Nov 5 Unless we suddenly discover how to turn all our trickery into clear cut goal scoring opportunities and convert them then we will struggle yet again, loads of possession with no reward and the ever present risk of gifting a stupid goal. I am beginning to be concerned that our attack is lightweight, most weeks we never look like scoring. This looks an odds on 0-0 at best.

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SanMarco added 18:29 - Nov 5 Yes - games like this are the key test for out ability to create and take chances. I don't think Hull will score many but I don't rule out Southampton 0 being the second half of the final score.
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ericofarabia added 06:08 - Nov 6 If we keep creating the amount of shots on goal, the goals will come, and a day like today is a good opportunity to rack up a few. Our previous 5 away games have been against last seasons Top 7 teams, so time to up the ante and maul The Tigers
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vanmans added 17:12 - Nov 6 Another inept performance. We should have been at least 3-0 up at half time against the worst team we have played this season. Hull are in the bottom three because they are crap and if we cant beat teams like that God help us. Why oh Why didn't we By any Strikers in the summer we all new we needed some. Looks like we are going to struggle until the January transfer window.

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