Southampton will make changes against struggling Aston Villa in Capital One Cup
Ronald Koeman will rotate his Southampton team for Wednesday's Capital One Cup fourth-round fixture at home to Aston Villa.
The manager remains without the injured Shane Long and Jay Rodriguez, while Sadio Mane is suspended after being sent off during Sunday's 1-1 draw at Liverpool.
And against struggling opponents Koeman will use some of his fringe players, meaning possible starts for Steven Caulker, James Ward-Prowse, Gaston Ramirez and more.
"It's all about the squad that you have available," said Koeman, whose team face Villa under caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald in their first match since Tim Sherwood's sacking.
"We know the difference between this season and last season is that, in my opinion, we have a stronger squad and we have more competition between the players.
"Some players deserve to play and this is the opportunity for them to show they count in our squad and they give real competition to the rest of the players.
"You have to be 100 per cent to go on in this tournament how we like. We like to win and we like to reach the final.
"You hope always for a good performance from the team and we know we will have great support from our fans again."
Villa sacked Sherwood on Sunday following six straight Barclays Premier League defeats left them bottom of the table.
And Sherwood's predecessor Paul Lambert, who is yet to return to management since leaving Villa, believes the club need to get real about their expectations.
Lambert was never given the money Sherwood had to spend in the summer and missed out on a loan deal for then-Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku as well as the chance to sign Wilfried Bony.
"The expectancy level outweighs the realism at the club at the minute," he told BBC Sport. "It was very hard for me from day one, everyone knew that Randy (Lerner) wanted to sell the football club.
"The most I ever spent was on Christian Benteke, I spoke to some really top players but we just couldn't do it. The players I wanted to bring to Aston Villa were big players, I spoke to Lukaku and Bony when I was there.
"That's what I had to work with, it's still a great club, but it should never be bottom of the Premier League."
Caretaker boss MacDonald could be tempted to recall Libor Kozak, with the striker's only appearance this season coming in the League Cup win over Notts County in August, while Charles N'Zogbia may also end his first-team exile.
Before he was sacked on Sunday Sherwood confirmed Ciaran Clark would be fit and was due to play after a thigh injury and Jores Okore could also feature following a knee injury which has sidelined him since the start of the season.
Source: PAR
