Shane Long has won praise from Ronald Koeman but will have to wait to see if he retains his place in the side to face Burnley after a positive reaction from the dropped Graziano Pelle.

The Italian was left out of the team for the first time in the Premier League since joining Saints last summer, with Long leading the line manfully in a superb 1-1 draw at Chelsea.

Koeman is pleased with how Long is doing, but has seen a reaction from Pelle ahead of tomorrow’s St Mary’s clash with Burnley.

“He’s doing very well,” said Koeman of Long.

“It’s a difference with Shane between now and the start of the season.

“I think he’s totally adapted in the way we play football and we like to play and he has some amazing qualities as a striker and maybe that gives us a little bit the movements in attack what we need to create more chances to scoring more goals.

“He’s doing very well.”

Of Pelle he added: “A little bit the reaction because nobody is happy to stay on the bench and sometimes you need a reaction of the player in that situation and he’s doing well.

“In that game at that moment it was good to change the way of playing with more fast players in front and Graziano is different but on Saturday we play at home.”

Eljero Elia is fit to return to the Saints squad to face Burnley.

The Dutch winger was forced to sit out last weekend’s draw against Chelsea with an ankle injury, but has recovered meaning that, other than long term absentee Jay Rodriguez, Koeman has a clean bill of health going into the game.

After a win against Crystal Palace and a draw with Chelsea, Koeman insists confidence is high again in the Saints camp.

“I think so. I hope, but that we have to demonstrate on the pitch,” he reasoned.

“It’s a difficult game at home.

“Of course the last result against Chelsea and the way how we played for the first half will give us the confidence what a player needs to play good football.

“We realise it’s a different one.

“Burnley are doing well the last few weeks, they have some great results against Chelsea and Man City last week.

“They will make it very difficult, a different game, a different system what they play, more direct and it will be difficult.”

Saints are likely to face an opponent that will make themselves hard to break down, something with which they have struggled with at home in recent times, but have hopefully got to grips with.

“A good game for that to show on Saturday,” smiled Koeman.

“Opponents are coming to St Mary’s maybe with a little bit more defensive mentality to wait, to defending, and you need to be patient and to do that right movements at the right time, but I think we had some weeks the players wasn’t in the best confident way and I think the difficult win against Crystal Palace home and for sure the draw against Chelsea, I think the confidence is back but that’s talking, show it on Saturday.”