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Koeman wary of Dons threat

Ronald Koeman has told the Daily Echo that he intends to change his line-up for Southampton’s match against Milton Keynes Dons in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday evening.

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Saints reached the quarter finals of the competition past year before succumbing to a disappointing away defeat to Sheffield United in a big cup upset.

“He said: “(The only positive was there was only) three minute’s added time – I thought Maynard was good, Hall had a go as did Baker and Poyet but I don’t think there was many positives. The most comfortable situation is to win the game because that gives really a good confidence for Saturday’.

“We showed a team that was very clinical”. That’s talk – you have to show it. We need to be prepared because in this kind of competition it’s not about the level you play against, because they fight for their lives in these kind of matches. “We kept the spirit in the team and did some good pressing in the first 30 minutes”.

But Koeman insists that his side will be prepared for a “tough game” as they look to progress far in the tournament this season.

“It was a tremendous learning curve for me and my players in offensive and defensive play that we will take forward into our campaign”. Southampton has two draws, two losses, and one win in their last five battles. It’s all about maybe some little injuries to protect a player and to have everyone available and 100 per cent’.

‘He’s been out for a long time and it’s also hard because he was out from May and that means no pre-season and a pre-season for a player is a very important part of the season.

McFadzean’s bad night continued as he cut out Juanmi’s cross for Rodriguez, only for his clearance bounce back off Long – who knew nothing about it – and loop into the net.

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Bertrand’s time out of the squad could be coming to an end though after he came through 45 minutes for Southampton’s Under-21s as they beat Reading’s youngsters 5-2 on Monday unscathed. Only one doubt is Pelle because he had a kick on his foot.

Virgil van Dijk playing for Southampton