Southampton travel to Craven Cottage to face Championship side Fulham in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening.
Saints come off the back of their first win of the season after a 2-0 victory at the Amex Stadium against Brighton on Saturday and will be hoping to back that up with another positive result.
Since their relegation to the Championship last season, Fulham have had a mixed start to their campaign. They have won three and lost two of their first five matches.
This could be an opportunity for Ralph Hasenhuttl to experiment with some fringe players who haven’t been given their chance to star in a Saints shirt yet this season.
It will also be interesting to see what formation the manager uses after choosing to play the team in three different systems in each game so far: 5-2-3 against Burnley, 5-3-2 against Liverpool and 4-2-2-2 in the win over Brighton.
Here’s how we predict the Southampton side to line up.
GK: Alex McCarthy
It’s not yet clear whether Hasenhuttl will opt for a cup goalkeeper. But if he does, McCarthy is leading the queue.
RB: Cedric Soares
Valery has played at right-back for every game this season and could do with a rest. Cedric appears to have been given another chance at Saints, and we predict him to feature against Fulham.
CB: Maya Yoshida
We reckon that Jan Bednarek will be given a rest, and Yoshida will come into the team. The centre-back is likely to be the captain at Craven Cottage.
CB: Jannik Vestergaard
Hasenhuttl could keep the faith in Vestergaard. He has underwhelmed this season but may get the nod ahead of Jack Stephens.
LB: Kevin Danso
The summer signing made his debut against Brighton at left-back and could continue. Jake Vokins won’t feature because of his involvement with the Under-23s, and Ryan Bertrand’s condition is currently unknown.
Oriol Romeu
Hasenhuttl will be keen to retain some defensive solidity in midfield. Therefore, Romeu could keep his place in the team.
CM: Stuart Armstrong
This could be a risk to play the attack-minded player in a deeper midfield position. However, he impressed after coming on against Brighton and is a hard player to leave out.
RW: Sofiane Boufal
Boufal’s Saints career seems to have been reinvigorated; he impressed in his cameo against Brighton. This could be the chance to see how he fares across 90 minutes.
LW: Moussa Djenepo
This prospect of Djenepo joining Boufal in the starting line-up is exciting. After scoring a super goal on Saturday, and turning in an all-round impressive performance, we expect him to get his first start.
ST: Shane Long
Long seemed to be scoring for fun towards the end of last season but has fallen down the pecking order. This could be the chance to play him and rest Che Adams and Danny Ings.
ST: Michael Obafemi
Obafemi picked up a nasty injury last campaign and hasn’t featured competitively since. We predict the youngster to partner Long for a very quick forward line.