Saints are spending some of their international break fine-tuning their set-pieces as they aim to find some cheap goals.

With the team struggling for confidence and having only scored eight times in eight Premier League games this season, boosting their return from set-pieces would be a huge bonus.

Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl now has a dedicated set-piece coach in the shape of Dave Watson, who moved from working with the goalkeepers to give more time to a role he had done as an addition to his main duties in the past.

It has certainly paid dividends defensively in the opening part of the season with Saints having only conceded one of their 15 goals against directly from a set-piece.

But it hasn’t had perhaps the desired effect in attack yet as they have also netted just the once with James Ward-Prowse slotting home a penalty against Bournemouth.

Jannik Vestergaard is the only defender to have found the net this season with Maya Yoshida – who scored for Japan in international action on Thursday – having gone close on several occasions from Ward-Prowse’s trademark deliveries.

“I think we had a few chances in this season so far and for Maya as well who is always very close to score. I am really hoping that Maya gets the first one,” said Hasenhuttl before the international break.

“With Prowsey we have a fantastic man who can bring the ball very good in the centre.

“We were a little unlucky but we must be convinced we can decide games on set-pieces and this is something we are working on.”

It’s all been a bit of a struggle for Saints in the opening stages of the season.

Only the bottom two clubs, Watford and Norwich, have conceded more goals than Saints’ 15 so far in this campaign. Netting eight is a slightly better effort but still only four clubs have scored fewer.

Saints’ next opponents after the international break, Wolves, have an equal record having scored 11 and conceded 11.

It is an important period for Saints when they return with five games in three weeks before the November international break.

After travelling to take on Wolves at Molineux they host in-form Leicester in a tricky looking Friday night game at St Mary’s.

There are then two trips in five days to the Etihad Stadium to take on the might of Manchester City, firstly in the Carabao Cup and then the Premier League.

Saints round off the little burst with a home game against Everton with the Toffees currently struggling under Marco Silva.