With Graziano Pelle suspended for the trip to Manchester City on Saturday, Ronald Koeman will have to have a major re shuffle in his tactics.

Graziano Pelle will be a big miss for Saints at the Etihad, he is central to everything Saints do attacking wise, whether its scoring goals, holding the ball up or bringing others into play leading either directly or indirectly to scoring opportunities.

The problem for Ronald Koeman is not so much that Pelle will be missing, but that he hasn't got anyone else in his squad that could be considered a direct replacement in the style of play that Pelle excels at.

If Jay Rodriguez had been fit then he could have slotted into the role easier than anyone else in the Saints squad, although he has not been used much in a central striking role for Saints, he played that role at Burnley and was originally signed with the viewpoint he would replace Rickie Lambert.

However he is not available so that leaves Koeman with only two real options.

The first is to play Shane Long as the central striker, this is probably the nearest in type to Pelle, although Long is a different player he is able to win balls in the air and hold things up, Long is a very adaptable player and although he would not be a 100% replacement in style for Pelle, he would do a job. The only downside being the fact that Long has barely trained or played in the last six weeks so physically its a big ask.

The only other option would be to completely change the style and play Sadio Mane in a lone striker role, this would mean a complete revamp in tactics in that Mane is totally different in style from the Italian centre forward.

However against Liverpool, City's defence was exposed by pace, they couldn't handle being attacked directly and at speed. This might prove a good tactic for Saints, use the passing of Tadic to pick out the runs of Mane and hit them were it hurts.

Other that these two its hard to see what else Koeman could do, Juanmi could be used and is certainly nippy, but he has barely played in the Premier and Koeman has publicly stated he needs to beef up physically to the demands, so being asked to plough a lone furrow up front is probably not a good option.

So it looks a direct choice between Shane Long and Sadio Mane, but either means the manager re assessing his game plan.

Sometimes though enforced change can bring top results and that might be the case for Saints this weekend.

Photo: Action Images

Whatsforpud added 10:13 - Nov 25 I know it is not so fashionable nowadays, but why not have Long and Mane as a pair upfront? They could work off each other, with Tadic and Davis wider, and maybe a little deeper.
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IWOZTHERE added 10:44 - Nov 25 Much the same thinking. Praps Long a little deeper and interchanging with Mane. Might restrict Manc's ability to attack in numbers?
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uaesaint added 12:58 - Nov 25 All of loserpools goals were wing play and in to box keep him were he is best out on wing and use long as is fast and can sprint into box plus can run at them at speed city had a problem with Liverpool runing at them direct and down wings
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saintsnutcase added 14:14 - Nov 25 One of the key problems with our squad is that there is no direct replacement for Pelle. Neither Long nor JRod are really target men. So we will have to change our style of play when Pelle is missing. That isn't easy.
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aceofthebase added 20:37 - Nov 25 Now which of our home grown talent is a natural replacement for Pelle? Hint he is underused on loan!
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SaintBrock added 10:17 - Nov 28 He doesn't have much choice so he'll probably react by holding his head in his hands as usual but at least he's got his big excuse all lined up. I doubt he has a clue how Stoke stuffed us last week either.
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