Graziano Pelle was dropped from the Saints squad to face Manchester City after failing to show “intensity” in training.
The Italian striker was on the bench as Saints defeated Aston Villa, and followed that up with what Ronald Koeman viewed as a lacklustre week of training ahead of the City game.
As such, and with real strength in depth to pick from, Koeman opted to leave Pelle out of the match day 18.
The Saints boss said yesterday: “First we have really competition with the strikers and I wasn’t happy about the intensity of Graziano this week in the training sessions.
“Then I like to be straight to everybody and other players deserve more to be part of the 18 players of today.”
Koeman was asked whether he has told Pelle what he expects this week, and replied: “Yes. He knows. “I will see what happens next week.”
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