Cedric Soares could be returning to the Saints squad for the home game against Liverpool next weekend after missing the best part of two months through injury.

If Cedric returns to the squad to face the ex Saints team at St Mary's on the 19th October he will have been out for 7 weeks since his mysterious foot injury sustained at Leicester City, due to two International breaks in that time he will though have only missed 5 Premier League games, so in some respects Saints have been lucky.

The problem for Claude Puel will be though, not whether the injury has fully healed, but how near to full fitness Soares is.

The nature of the injury has never really been revealed so whether the player has been unable to train or do other fitness work is unclear, also assuming he is nearing fitness now when he was actually able to resume training.

That leaves the manager with a dilemma, he desperately needs a player of the quality of Soares in the side for this game, last season Cuco Martina played and in the first half of the game was ripped apart by Liverpool due to his inability to hold his position and not go dashing upfield.

That left gaps which Liverpool exploited scoring two and in truth it should have been three, in the second half of the game Martina held hs position better, but this tendency is still there this season and it is one that Jurgen Klopp will be well aware of.

At Hull City Yoshida was preferred to Martina, but in truth this is not the answer in that with the pace that Liverpool have, the Japanese player will be exposed, although he can play at full back he is essentially a central defender and doesn't have the engine that modern day full backs need to get up the line.

So if Soares is not fit what options does Puel have, my preferred one would be to switch Ryan Bertrand to right back and bring in Sam McQueen on the left, whilst I,m not usually a fan of square pegs in round holes, I think this would offer pace on both flanks and Bertrand is an experienced enough player to take on this role.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 09:21 - Nov 11 I don't think you meant to suggest that McQueen and Bertrand should both play on the right but, regardless of that, if Cedric is fit then surely he either starts with Martina on the bench or vice versa? Agreed Martina isn't the best right back at the club and his form has been patchy but dragging Bertrand out of position doesn't make much sense to me.
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SaintNick added 10:56 - Nov 11 Normally I dont like playing players out of position, but I would prefer to put Bertrand at right back than either Martina or Yoshida
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IWOZTHERE added 11:40 - Nov 11 Not really considered Bertrand at right back but I guess we won't know until it's tried. No-one's commented on the strange but persistent rumour that Barcelona are interested in Cedric?
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ItchenNorth added 13:24 - Nov 11 We need Soares back in the starting line up for sure. Martina has been very inconstant. A good solid back up player but not one you would ideally like to play every week. I think the rumoured Barcelona interest in Soares is not beyond the realms of reason. He is a top talent and wouldn't command a massive fee at this stage. A players supposed weakness is often exaggerated by the quality of the players in and around them. Put Soares in the Barcelona team and i don't think they'd have the niggling concerns that we have with him. A good player. I can't see him going anywhere just yet though.

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SaintBrock added 18:50 - Nov 11 Cuco Martina has been a stalwart for Saints in every meaningful sense of that word having had to play virtually every game during Cedric's lay-off. He must be absolutely knackered, no wonder some of the comedy defending against Chelsea, he badly needed a rest. All the others have been in and out but not him until now. Assuming he doesn't play over the break of course he must be first choice against the Scousers, we cannot risk a recovering Cedric against Coutinho especially in the first twenty minutes when the little man is all fired up.

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BUCK added 10:01 - Nov 12 I had an arguement on Twitter last week about cuco. Someone fan was saying hes utter rubbish. I disagree. He was a 1 million buy and has done a great job standing in. He was only ever bought as a squad player. And I for one like him.
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aceofthebase added 10:11 - Nov 12 Cedric is best on the transfer list. He cannot defend for toffees and his attacking flair is well matched by Martina. Incidentally the same attacking flair that Martina was criticised for so regularly by Nick in one solitary match. I am fed up seeing Cedric chasing back, hopelessly out of position and looking confused as an attacker send over a cross and if he is in the goalmouth he is always outjumped. He has already cost us about six points. and Martina has saved or earned us another six.

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aceofthebase added 10:11 - Nov 12 Cedric is best on the transfer list. He cannot defend for toffees and his attacking flair is well matched by Martina. Incidentally the same attacking flair that Martina was criticised for so regularly by Nick in one solitary match. I am fed up seeing Cedric chasing back, hopelessly out of position and looking confused as an attacker send over a cross and if he is in the goalmouth he is always outjumped. He has already cost us about six points. and Martina has saved or earned us another six.

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arthurfane added 14:27 - Nov 15 Aceofthebase hopefully it'll be Cuco defending for Toffees then instead. Cedric can be a little erratic, but is improving all the time in my opinion. Very much agree with BUCK that Cuco's a decent stand in for £1m, but little more than that. The bloke has never won a contested header I wouldn't have thought, and up against a decent attack he is woeful. Such a shame Pied got injured, but I do have faith Cedric will come good.

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