Southampton travel away to face Norwich this weekend in the Premier League and Ralph Hasenhuttl could be facing a difficult selection problem.
Yan Valery made his first appearance of the year against Newcastle last weekend and was at fault for the only goal of the game. He attempted to bring the ball down on his chest, but allowed Allan Saint-Maximin to nip in ahead of him and slot past Alex McCarthy to win the match.
The Saints will now come up against a Norwich side who have one of their biggest threats playing on the left – Todd Cantwell. The England under-21 international plays on the left of Norwich’s attacking midfield three and will be up against whoever Hasenhuttl picks at right-back.
So, who should he go with? In order to deal with Cantwell and the threat he poses, moving Ward-Prowse to right-back and playing Will Smallbone in midfield could be a good option.
Norwich’s main threats come from wide areas and Smallbone may not be under huge pressure in central areas. He could be allowed to play his game and have time on the ball with Kenny McLean and Alex Tettey often backing off for Norwich.
Ward-Prowse averages more tackles, more interceptions and more blocks per game in the Premier League than both Yan Valery and Kyle Walker-Peters. This suggests that he could be best suited to dealing with Cantwell.
The Norwich forward has six goals and two assists in the Premier League this season, with only Danny Ings able to boast more goal contributions than that in the Saints squad.
Ward-Prowse recently dealt with Aston Villa star Jack Grealish in a 2-0 win for the club. Grealish and Cantwell have similar styles of play and both play in the same position, so Ward-Prowse already has experience at thwarting a player of Cantwell’s type.
