Southampton prepare to take on bottom of the league and manager-less Aston Villa in the Capital One Cup Round of 16 on Wednesday evening as Ronald Koeman hopes to lead his men through to the quarter finals.
Aston Villa, currently rooted to the bottom of the Premier League, will be without a recognised manager for their match away at Southampton after Tim Sherwood was sacked on Saturday afternoon due to a dismal start to their Premier League campaign.Southampton will hope to take advantage of what looks to be an extremely vulnerable Aston Villa side, who head into the fixture without a single Premier League win since the opening day of the season, where Rudy Gestede scored a winner against Bournemouth to take all three points for his side in a 1-0 victory.This should give Southampton encouragement of a big win on Wednesday evening, as they look to progress into the same stage at which they were knocked out last time round, suffering a 1-0 loss to League One Sheffield United, now managed by former manager Nigel Adkins. However, Ronald Koeman has expressed his desire to win silverware at Southampton, and there is no better way to get into Europe also than by winning a domestic cup this season.
In the last round, Southampton hammered Championship side MK Dons 6-0 away from home, thanks to a trio of braces from Sadio Mane, Jay Rodriguez and Shane Long, however it is clear that the opposition will be much harder this time round. In the second round of the tournament, Aston Villa narrowly beat League Two team Notts County 5-3, before seeing off rivals Birmingham City 1-0 in the third round.
Ahead of the game, Southampton boss Ronald Koeman has confirmed that striking duo Shane Long and Jay Rodriguez will both miss out on the cup tie due to respective ankle and foot injuries, but Koeman remains hopeful of their return for The Saints’ next Premier League fixture on Sunday against Bournemouth. Koeman has also hinted at a first Southampton start for Gaston Ramirez after two years, speaking about how he has been impressed with the Uruguayan’s attitude and determination to force his way back into the Southampton side.
It is widely expected that Southampton will come away with a victory on Wednesday evening, but they must not under-estimate the threat that Aston Villa do possess going forward, which is more than capable of compensating for the current defensive frailties in the team. One player that has been impressive for Villa this season has been Adama Traore, signed from Barcelona in the summer. The speedy winger has caught the attention of many over the course of the season so far, due to his pace and direct dribbling ability. It is expected that Traore will start against Southampton as Villa will look to rotate their squad with Saturday’s away match against Tottenham in mind, and the 19-year-old will look to jump at the opportunity to impress for his team.
Southampton will hope for a repeat fixture of what happened the last time these two sides went against each other, as Southampton ran out 6-1 winners near the end of last season thanks to the quickest ever Premier League hat-trick from Sadio Mane; who they will be without on Wednesday evening.
Can you see Southampton winning the Capital One Cup this season?
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