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Hasenhuttl Confirms He Is Likely To Make Changes For West Ham Game

Ralph Hasenhuttl has been speaking in his press conference about his likely line up for the FA Cup game against the Hammers and has indicated that he is likely to change the side from the one that beat Norwich City at the weekend.

Ralph Hasenhuttl 's comments ahead of the tie against West Ham United won't be welcomed by Saints supporters keen to see the side progress to the quarter finals of the competition, however it should also be considered that the Austrian very rarely reveals his thoughts before a game entirely and likes to keep the opposition guessing.

Speaking in the press conference ahead of the game he had this to say.

"So far, the cup competitions have always been important for us as a team to give players chances, to show their importance for us as a club and this helps massively for keeping the atmosphere good in this team.

"When you have a bigger squad, you have some players who are not able to play all the time and they need something, a target to look at, and they have showed in the cup competitions so far that they have done a good job.

"They want to get a chance again to show up, and I don't know how much we may change from the last game, but there will be a few, definitely."

Speaking about getting the right balance between playing his strongest side and giving squad players game time he had this to say:

"Both things are important, we've had an intense time already and have an intense two weeks to come, so we have to balance the impact on players who have been a long time out with injuries."

So there you have it, Ralph is likely to make some changes, although some may be more tactical than change for change sake, as in eluded to in an earlier article today, he seemed to be referring to Stuart Armstrong in his last sentence and will not want to over stretch the Scotsman and risk further injury.

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