Manolo Gabbiadini and Shane Long still need the support of their teammates to fire Saints some much needed goal rather than doing it all alone, according to Mauricio Pellegrino.

Gabbiadini and Long started together against Newcastle and formed an excellent double act, with the Italian bagging a brace in the 2-2 draw at St Mary’s.

They give Pellegrino the option to play two up front, or with one in a more advanced role and the other, most likely Gabbiadini, in more a number ten position.

Their ability to break from deeper offers Saints another threat in a run of games where they are playing teams who defend deep, but they still need the correct service to thrive.

Pellegrino said: “For sure but for me it always depends how it will be on the pitch with the ball, how we move the ball, the tempo of the ball, and Manolo and Shane are the type of player who need the teammates to support them with the right passes, right penetration, good deliveries, good drive and passes, good crosses.

“All of us we have to help them and they have to help all the rest.

“I think our strikers, even Charlie (Austin), are players that like to play in the limit and all of them have the quality to run behind and attack in the box and they feel comfortable there.

“In the limit they are doing diagonal runs all the time, but also they can play together depending on the game.

“I think always Charlie helps the team, 15 minutes or 20 minutes, and in the box is also clever, and the other two players maybe can run more in all the front of the defence, Charlie is more positional. This is the difference between them.”

Pellegrino insists he has not made a firm decision to continue Long and Gabbiadini, and hinted at chopping and changing the style and personnel slightly depending on the opposition.

“Depends on the game,” he admitted. “The other day I felt that we could do it because I thought that Newcastle will be really well organised, something that we did and they did.

“It depends on the game. Sometimes we will play with two strikers again, sometimes we will go back to one, sometimes Shane can play a little bit on the right like some other games.

“The important thing for us is both are getting better every single week, for the confidence of the player to score goals completes their job, but I have got confidence in the way that they are training and preparing this week and we will decide who will play.”

Gabbiadini’s brace against the Magpies could prove a significant moment given the Italian’s history of hitting scoring streaks.

“Hopefully it will be a good moment, because the most important thing was Manolo, Shane were working really hard,” said Pellegrino.

“The spirit at the end was really good and we have to start from the beginning in this way to show we want to win from the first minute. This is the spirit we have to show at the weekend.

“The most important thing was Manolo helped the team with these two goals.”