Ronald Koeman has confirmed that his recent retinence to change the attacking set up of the team has been more about the options he had rather than a reluctance to make those changes.
Many Saints fans lately have been commenting that perhaps Graziano Pelle should have been rested and that the player had looked jaded in recent games resulting in a barren spell in terms of goals scored.
Now with the team going off to a break in Switzerland and with most of the squad fit again Koeman has spoken of his reasoning behind keeping faith with the Italian striker who now has gone 10 Premier League games without scoring stretching back to Boxing Day when he netted in a 3-1 win at least nights opponents Crystal Palace.
"It’s difficult. I think he was working very hard. He was maybe one or two situations a little bit unlucky but we have now the bench to change,” said Koeman.
"Maybe in the last two or three games we have that possibility to do changes in the game what we did today and Shane Long is working hard, he’s doing well and if Pelle is a little bit struggling then it’s normal that you give opportunities to Shane Long.
"It’s not about Pelle, it’s about the whole team and that’s the most important.”
Koeman has been wise on this in not speaking out till the crisis is over,whilst he will feel that some of the criticism aimed towards Pelle has been unfair on a player who despite not scoring has been involved in plenty of goals for others, he will also have known that the striker needed a break, the problem is that he had no one to hand who could play in the way he needed with Shane Long spending much of the past six weeks injured and Mane away on International duty.
Now he has taken the pressure of both the player and the situation itself by confirming just why Pelle played on for so long, now the player can look to regaining his confidence and scoring touch whilst hopefully the supporters will get off Pelle's back as they realise that he was playing through the tiredness as there was no other choice.