HAS the time come to drop Fraser Forster for the first time in his Saints career?

If not, then is the time right to introduce Martin Caceres into the centre of defence for the first time in order to give the goalkeeper more cover?

Those are two questions Claude Puel should be mulling over as he bids to ensure his first season at St Mary’s does not fizzle out into one of huge disappointment.

Not one single fan would have advocated relegating England international Forster to the bench in any of his first two seasons at Saints.

He was a rock under Ronald Koeman following his £10m arrival from Glasgow Celtic in August 2014 - a fee which made him the most expensive British goalkeeper of all time.

He conceded only 21 goals in 30 league appearances in 2014/15, prior to a serious injury in March 2015.

His record of conceding a goal every 125 minutes was exceptional.

On his return from injury in January 2016, Forster promptly kept six successive clean sheets and established a new Saints record for consecutive Premier League minutes without conceding a goal.

Different story He ended with a record of a goal conceded every 95 minutes.

It’s been a different story this term, with Chelsea’s four goals at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday taking Forster’s conceded column to 44 in 32 outings.

He has certainly not had anywhere near as good a season as previously at St Mary’s.

Saints have already let in more goals this term than they did in the whole of 2014/15 (33) and 2015/16 (41) - and there are still six games left.

Forster has now conceded a goal every 64 minutes in league action this term - almost half the figure he recorded in his debut campaign at St Mary’s.

Could now be the time to hand Mouez Hassen his chance?

The Frenchman arrived as cover for Forster back in January, but has so far only appeared in under-23 matches.

He is not a total novice, having played almost 50 top flight French League games for Puel at Nice. Having said that, the last one was in December 2015.

Of course, there are mitigating circumstances Forster can point to.

Back in 2014/15 Forster had Jose Fonte and Toby Alderweireld as a central defensive pair in front of him.

Now starring for Tottenham, the latter is arguably one of the best two centre halves in the Premier League.

The other is Virgil Van Dijk, who for almost the whole of last season and the first half of this formed an impressive centre half pairing with Fonte.

Ask Saints fans last summer if they imagined that Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens would ever become the first choice pairing, and they would have laughed.

But no-one is smiling now.

Not after Fonte was sold to West Ham in the January window and van Dijk suffered his season-ending injury a fortnight later.

Yoshida and Stephens have started all 10 of the club’s league games since the fateful day van Dijk was crocked by Jamie Vardy at St Mary’s.

They are the only 10 league games Stephens has ever started for Saints.

During that time, the team have shipped 18 goals - seven of which come in the last two losses to Manchester City and Chelsea.

In fairness to the current centre halves, Saints’ record in the previous 10 games when van Dijk had played was not much better - they conceded 14 goals in that period.

But is it now time to give Caceres a run?

The former Barcelona and Juventus man is highly experienced, and Saints are not paying him peanuts to sit on the bench - as he has done since arriving in February as a free agent.

On the downside, Caceres lacks top level fitness - he has only played a handful of under-23 games since his last Juve appearance in early February 2016.

But surely his experience, his knowledge, can be useful. If not, why sign him?

That is a worthwhile question to ask of Puel.

Florin Gardos - a £6m signing in 2014, lest we forget - continues to gain fitness playing for the under-23s but is obviously behind Caceres in the pecking order.

Caceres was Puel’s only defensive option on the bench at Stamford Bridge in midweek - a sign of the lack of alternatives available to the manager.

Right back Jeremy Pied had sat on the bench in league games prior to that, and could well get a run-out before the curtain is brought down on a spectacularly inconsistent season.

But right back is not where the main concerns lie, though ex-Saints boss Graeme Souness was critical on Sky TV of Cedric’s positioning for Chelsea’s opener on Tuesday.

It would be a big shout from the boss to throw in Hassen or Caceres - it is unlikely he will do both at the same time - when neither have played a competitive game for over a year.

But Puel is paid to make big decisions, and he needs to do something to avoid his debut season aboard the emotional rollercoaster which is Southampton FC ending on a low rather than a high.