Southampton

Mauricio Pochettino ready to test squad depth

By Sam Hughes, Reporter | 24 November 2013

Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino says that he is ready to test his squad's depth with the number of games coming up in the next few weeks.

Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that he will have to manage his squad carefully over the next few weeks to keep his players fresh.

The Saints suffered a 2-0 loss against Arsenal on Saturday without key trio Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw, who was taken off with an injury.

Pochettino said that he and his staff will assess the injuries in their squad with the amount of games coming up in mind.

"Dejan Lovren had a really bad night and stayed back in Southampton. Hopefully he's going to be back in fit, 100% for Monday," Pochettino told reporters. "Also we'll need to analyse how Luke Shaw is doing because in the first half he received a very strong knock on his leg.

"Adam [Lallana] played two games for the national side and after that he was struggling a little bit physically.

"There are many games coming up and we have to be careful over how we use our players - not just him but all our players. We have to be careful how we manage the amount of games we have ahead of us."

Southampton travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea next Sunday.