Southampton travel to north London this Wednesday to take on Tottenham in the FA Cup fourth found replay, where the winner will be awarded a home tie against Norwich in the fifth round.
The initial meeting between the two sides saw Heung-min Son score the opener, before Sofiane Boufal netted an 87th minute equaliser with a brilliant finish high into the net.
Since then, the Saints have succumbed to a 4-0 defeat against Premier League leaders Liverpool – no shame in that – while Jose Mourinho’s side recorded an impressive 2-0 win over reigning champions Manchester City, thanks to another goal from Son and a debut strike from Steven Bergwijn.
However, the Premier League must momentarily step aside – here’s the XI that we think Ralph Hasenhuttl should deploy against Spurs…
As you can see, we think the former RB Leipzig boss should make four changes to the side which started at Anfield, with Angus Gunn replacing Alex McCarthy as he did in the initial fourth round tie.
The Saints put in a terrific shift against arguably the most troublesome side in the Premier League, recording more shots than Jurgen Klopp’s men while also registering more tackles as a team – seeing as that was only on Saturday, most of those players will presumably be feeling weary.
As a result, we think Hasenhuttl should rest James Ward-Prowse and bring Yan Valery back into the side for his first appearance since November – the Frenchman has been missing with a viral infection. Also, Ward-Prowse has played 90 minutes on 30 occasions this term, so he deserves a rest.
Kevin Danso – who was the subject of interest from RB Leipzig in January – should be given some game time over Ryan Bertrand, with Oriol Romeu and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg keeping their place in midfield. Moussa Djenepo also deserves another start as he attempts to rediscover his rhythm, having not scored or assisted since the end of November.
Someone’s got to own them: Who do these incredibly unwanted PL records belong to?
We also think Boufal deserves to start for getting Southampton into this replay with his goal, while Danny Ings and Shane Long keep their places up top.
In other news, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg may have dropped a hint about his future on Instagram…
