Southampton manager Russell Martin has hinted at making some changes for the away trip to Stoke on Tuesday, saying that Saints need to be ‘realistic’ with rotation.
A four-game losing run was ended on Saturday lunchtime with a 3-1 win over Leeds United, but with two games coming in the next week, Martin has said that rotation will be needed.
“I think we have to be realistic and accept that we have to rotate a little bit over the next two games,” Martin told the Daily Echo ahead of Saints’ trip to Stoke on Tuesday night.
“We have guys who played on Saturday that haven’t started or played a lot of minutes for quite a while.
“With the medical and sports science teams we will do our best to make sure they recover as best as possible.
“We have great facilities here, it’s top. We have really brilliant staff and we will manage them the best way we can.
“The way we play takes a lot of intensity from the players, within their minds and their legs. We have to be aware of it, but at the same time try to make sure we can build on the really positive weekend.”
Martin hoping to build on Leeds win
Despite Stoke winning their first game in seven in the Championship on Saturday, Martin has said it will be an ‘interesting’ game.
“It will be a really interesting and different game to Saturday,” he added. “I am really looking forward to it. Will (Smallbone) played under Alex Neil last season and has an understanding of how he works.
“We will be tapping into that as well. We need to have a good week. The supporters were great on Saturday. Having watched the goals back I hope there is real evidence of the work we are doing.
“I was really proud of that. We need to keep building, it’s not enough. We need to be better again and hopefully we will be over these next two games.”