Southampton fans have their first chance of the summer to see their side St Mary’s action against Lazio on Wednesday night.
So far, Russell Martin‘s side have played all five of their pre-season friendlies away from home, with Eastleigh kicking off proceedings before a trip to Spain saw a double-header against French opponents in Bordeaux and Montpellier.
Those games were followed by the only defeat of the summer so far as Southampton slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Oxford United before beating Millwall 1-0 at The Den on Saturday.
With just under two weeks until Martin takes his Southampton side to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United on August 17, the Saints are now set to ramp up their preparations with two tough home tests.
The first of these is against Lazio on Wednesday night, before Getafe come to town on Saturday.
Southampton team and injury news for Lazio friendly
Gavin Bazunu remains a long-term absentee in goal and will be out well into the new season with an Achilles injury.
Aside from their number one, Southampton do not have too many injury concerns.
However, Adam Lallana is yet to feature this summer after complaining of muscle tightness in the warm-up to the Eastleigh win and Ross Stewart’s fitness woes continue to frustrate.
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Stewart is also yet to make an appearance ethic summer, with Martin explaining that the striker is training but the club do not want to rush his involvement after effectively 18 months out injured.
Juan Larios stepped up his recovery with 45 minutes for Southampton under-21s last week having not played a minute for the first-team since sustaining an injury in October 2022.
Kyle Walker-Peters is fit but is not expected to feature against Lazio as his absence from the side continues due to speculation surrounding the star man’s future.
Both Sekou Mara and Kamaldeen Sulemana went off injured in the first half against Oxford last Wednesday and Martin has confirmed Mara should be available to face Lazio whilst Sulemana will now miss the start of the season.
Southampton predicted line-up against Lazio
With just two games left to iron out any issues ahead of the start of the Premier League season, the sides Martin sends out against both Lazio and Getafe are expected to closely resemble what he considers his best XI.
With just three days between the two matches, though, it is perhaps more likely that the side that starts against Getafe will be the team Martin expects to name against Newcastle so there is still room for one or two players to impress against Lazio.
Alex McCarthy should start in goal, with Saint expected to set up in a 4-3-3 in front of him.
This could see a back four of Yukinari Sugawara, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Jack Stephens and Charlie Taylor.
Flynn Downes will likely anchor the midfield, with one of Will Smallbone or Joe Aribo alongside youngster Tyler Dibling in the three; the youngster given another chance after impressing in pre-season so far.
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In attack, the arrival of Ben Brereton Diaz should allow Adam Armstrong to return to the right wing position in which he thrived last season, whilst Samuel Edozie may start from the left wing with Southampton very light on the flanks.
With that in mind, here is how we predict Southampton will line up against Lazio for the 7:30pm BST kick-off on Wednesday night.
Southampton (4-3-3): McCarthy; Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Taylor; Downes, Smallbone, Dibling; Armstrong, Brereton Diaz, Edozie