Koeman may shelve rotation plans

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman may shelve plans for rotation after his side’s impressive 4-0 drubbing of Premier League title hopefuls Arsenal on Boxing Day.

Koeman expressed his frustration with his side’s schedule, which sees his team having to back up Boxing Day’s effort in less than 48 hours to travel to Upton Park where West Ham await.

The Dutch manager had planned to make wholesale changes but has admitted it would be hard to drop many players from the team that beat Arsenal so convincingly.

“It will be difficult but the Monday game is all about freshness of the players,” Koeman told the Daily Echo.

“Of course, after winning you like to give everybody that second chance and the confidence to start again.

“We will see what we get in the training sessions before we leave to London for the West Ham game.”

Koeman said it was his preference to cash in on the confidence gained from the win over Arsenal.

“We know it gives the team the confidence to play on a high level,” Koeman said.

“It’s a difficult one, we have to travel, it’s two days to recover, but the same for them and we will see what happens.”

The Dutchman stood by his comments about the scheduling.

“It’s not enough time to recover and that’s the problem,” he insisted.

“I like football, I like Boxing Day and that’s not the question.

“The question is we have 43 hours to recover and we have to travel and it’s impossible to be recovered 100 per cent.

“In my opinion yes (it risks injuries), because players like Arsenal, like Chelsea, playing Champions League, playing for international games, everybody is having a holiday now. That’s strange because you need recovering time.”