Saints travel to South Wales to take on Swansea City looking to continue their unbeaten run at the Liberty Stadium.

Saints head to Swansea ravaged by injury problems as they look to hit the 30 point mark with a win and in doing so keep the Swans down in the relegation dogfight, not that we have got anything against the Welsh club it's just we need the points.

But Claude Puel is likely to be without 9 or 10 first team squad players, some of them are long term injuries like Alex Mcarthy, Matt Targett, Jake Hesketh, Jeremy Pied and Charlie Austin, some are worrying like Virgil Van Dijk and others are carrying minor knocks and likely to miss out, this would include James Ward Prowse, Jay Rodriguez, Soifiane Boufal and perhaps Steven Davis.

That is a big chunk of the squad out injured, but although Saints are stretched to the limits in some key areas they should still be able to put out a side that can compete and win the game.

Claude Puel just needs to make sure that unlike Saturday against Arsenal he puts together a strong spine in the side.

That means experience and I would like to see the following line up.

Fraser Forster

Soares, Yoshida, Stephens, Bertrand.

Romeu, Clasie, Hojbjerg

Tadic, Long, Redmond

That is just about all of our experience and from then on we are struggling to fill the bench.

Sims, Reed, McQueen & Gardos offer some blend of experience and quality, but for the remaining two places assuming the aforementioned injury list it is hard to even guess who else might fill them.

But sometimes having too many options can hamper a manager, perhaps for Claude Puel and his notorious rotation system, this might actually focus his mind a little.

This is a crucial time for Saints, they have to balance getting points on the board and pushing themselves back into the top ten along with nursing an injury list as long as your arm.

With this in mind Puel would do well to learn from his previous mistakes and concentrate on getting points on the board as quickly as possible so that he gains and keeps momentum.

He has to make subtle changes to the team, that goes without saying, but with only 3 games in 4 weeks to play in the run up to Wembley and indeed two full weeks off ahead of the trip to Wembley he cannot say that any of the squad would be tired.

Photo: Action Images

SaintBrock added 13:56 - Jan 31 Davis was training so why have you left him out Nick? Puel didn't comment on injuries so maybe some no so bad as others and he as surprise up his sleeve. He must go with Davis, Romeu, Ward Prowse on present form.
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SonicBoom added 14:53 - Jan 31 We should put out our best side. He rotated the squad at the weekend supposedly to save players for this game so he must play them. Not only that Swansea are 4th bottom so with all due respect one of the better chances in this season of picking up away points.
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highfield49 added 15:01 - Jan 31 I'd take a guess that we'll have a goalkeeper on the bench Nick?
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SanMarco added 15:30 - Jan 31 Davis for Hojbjerg I hope - at least we will be wanting to win tonight which helps. The centre of defence is now a major weakness - but hopefully we will have some positive news on that front before 11pm.
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dixiefrog added 17:59 - Jan 31 My prediction....a full strength squad (other than those injured) and a comfortable win. I'm particularly interested in seeing the CB partnership of Yosh and Stephens again, the blend of youth and experience seems to be paying off. Maybe it will be the same as when Louvren left where the Saints fans said Liverpool had bought the wrong CB, maybe it's history repeating itself only this time with Wet Spam.

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