After a busy festive period, Southampton take a break from Championship action this weekend as they welcome League Two Walsall to St Mary’s in the FA Cup.
Southampton have had a successful run of results across the Christmas and New Year period, winning three and drawing one in the four games between December 23rd and January 1st.
The busy schedule will have taken its toll on Southampton’s squad and manager Russell Martin is expected to use the Walsall clash as an opportunity to rest some key players. Given that the Saints went out of the Carabao Cup to Walsall’s fellow League Two side Gillingham in August, Martin will be wary of rotating his side too heavily though.
Joe Aribo will be absent for the tie as he is joining up with Nigeria for the African Cup of Nations and Sam Edozie is likely to miss this one after coming off injured in the first half against Norwich on New Years Day. Southampton have a deep squad and Martin will no doubt use Saturday’s game against the side 11th in League Two as a chance to give senior players minutes who have not featured much lately, but there also could be an opportunity for some of the club’s exciting youth products to feature.
If this is the case, here are three young talents who could be in line for first team football against Walsall.
Could Sam Amo-Ameyaw be in line for FA Cup return?
With Edozie’s injury prognosis not yet confirmed and Kamaldeen Sulemana still out injured, Ryan Fraser is the only fit senior winger in the Southampton squad.
This could mean we see a return for exciting young wide-man Sam Amo-Ameyaw who featured at the beginning of the season but has not played a minute since August. The 17-year-old represented England at the under-17 World Cup in Indonesia in November and has been in Saints’ squad for the past three Championship games but has not made it off the bench.
Amo-Ameyaw made his debut in the final game of the Premier League season in May and impressed in his brief cameo in the 4-4 draw against Liverpool. The tricky winger featured heavily in pre-season and came off the bench in Southampton’s second and third Championship games of the season before starting in the 2-1 win over QPR at the end of August. Since then, the arrival of Fraser on loan, as well as the initial return from injury of Sulemana, meant that Amo-Ameyaw saw his involvement in senior football temporarily halted.
Martin has also stated that Amo-Ameyaw would be playing much more if there wasn’t so much pressure on him to guide the club to an instant return to the Premier League and told the Daily Echo last month: “If we came here and they didn’t say we had to get promoted but they said you’ve got to play young guys then they’d be playing every week”.
The game against Walsall represents the perfect opportunity to ease Amo-Ameyaw back into the side and prepare him for a potentially increased role in the next few weeks; although Southampton may be set to further strengthen their attacking positions in the transfer window.
Could Tyler Dibling make his first start against Walsall?
The other player referenced by Martin alongside Amo-Ameyaw when asked about youth development last month was Tyler Dibling. Following his initial comment, Martin went on to say that: “They (Amo-Ameyaw and Dibling) train with us all the time. When they play with the Under-21s they need to be the best players”.
This is a big ask of Martin, given Dibling is also just 17 and will be playing against players four years his senior in the youth team, but shows just how highly he and Amo-Ameyaw are rated at the club. Dibling actually left Southampton in July 2022 to join Chelsea but rejoined the Saints just months later as he struggled to adapt to the move.
Dibling has been in the squad for the past three Championship games but is yet to make his debut in the competition. In fact, Dibling has made just one senior appearance in his career so far, coming off the bench for the final five minutes of the Carabao Cup defeat to Gillingham.
The fact Dibling has been included in Martin’s last three squads would suggest he is edging closer to being involved and the Walsall game could see the England youth player make his first start for the club. The only thing that may prevent this is that Dibling is a left-footed winger, like Amo-Ameyaw, and Martin may not want to start the game with both wings occupied by 17-year-olds.
The solution to this issue may be to play Dibling deeper and include him in the midfield three rather than the front three. This would also provide good experience for the youth prospect with three goals and three assists in the Premier League 2 this season.
Jayden Meghoma to benefit from lack of full-back depth
The third and final youth player who could be in line to feature against Walsall on Saturday is Jayden Meghoma. Meghoma is also 17 which suggests that there is potentially a lack of quality in the older youth age groups at the club, although the fact that a number of the older youth products are out on loan does contribute to this.
Meghoma is a left-back who can also play in central defence and, with James Bree missing the last three games through injury, the youngster will likely benefit from Martin resting the only fit senior full-backs in the squad in Kyle Walker-Peters and Ryan Manning.
Meghoma also started the Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Gillingham in what was his first and only appearance for the club, playing 85 minutes of that game. Unlike Amo-Ameyaw and Dibling, Meghoma has not been included in recent Southampton squads, with the player capped five times by England under-18s having only made one Championship squad; the 2-2 draw with Preston which Manning missed through suspension.
With Manning the only natural left-back in the squad given Juan Larios’ ongoing injury troubles, Meghoma has a big opportunity to show Martin that he can be Manning’s understudy.