Shane Long To Return To Face Gunners Wednesday, 24th Jun 2020 09:01 It is good news on the injury front after it was announced Shane Long is now fit and raring to go after missing the Norwich game through injury, giving Ralph Hasenhuttl a full squad to select from barring suspensions. Shane Long will return to the squad to face Arsenal on Thursday evening with the only missing face being Moussa Djenepo who will complete the second game of his three match ban. Otherwise everyone else is fit and available and Ralph Hasenhuttl had this to say. "My players are all fit, Longy is back, he's trained with the team all this week. So we have another opportunity in the front. "Moussa is out with his suspension, but the rest of the guys are available." The return of Long is good, although Saints have plenty of attacking options even without Moussa Djenepo, the fact is that Long offers something up front that neither Michael Obafemi or Che Adams have so far shown at least not consistently. The 3-0 win at Norwich looked good on paper, but it has to be put in context and going forward for a long period Saints although getting the ball forwrd quickly on the break lacked something. Michael Obafemi has pace but he does not yet have the intuition that comes with experience, too often he did not make the right runs either to provide an outlet or to create space for others, he has a lot to learn, Long has the experience to do just that, he can also hold the ball up and draw fouls when needed, he will offer Saints a different level of nous than Obafemi who at the moment is just pure pace. The Norwich win has taken some pressure off Saints but we should not get too excited just yet, a lot of the old problems defensively were still there for all to see especially in the first 20 minutes. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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