Ralph Hasenhuttl will rely on his Saints ‘beasts’ to fight fatigue and get a precious win against Everton this afternoon.

Around half of the side that figured heavily in the midweek penalty shootout defeat to Derby, and also slogged out a gruelling win when down to ten men at Leicester, are likely to be called upon again.

With some of them having played 90 minutes and then 120 in the last week it will be a tough ask to find the freshness to compete physically with an Everton side who had no midweek engagement.

However, Hasenhuttl has faith.

“I am thinking that we have a few beasts in our team. They really can do it,” he insisted.

“If you ask them all the time they say ‘it’s ok, we can do it.’ “We have a few very strong physically guys and if not it would not be possible.

“We get a few fresh players and we have a good mixture then we have a team who is able to give a strong performance, a good performance at the weekend, because that’s what we need.”

Hasenhuttl does at least have some fresh players to draft into the side.

Danny Ings should return after his hamstring problem while Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Yan Valery and Charlie Austin are all available again after bans for the visit of Marco Silva’s side.

“I think they are in a good position,” said Hasenhuttl of Everton. “The last game they won at home and it was a good game. I know a few players, like Lookman, and he had a good game last weekend.

“They have had time to prepare for this game and I think they were delighted about what they saw with 120 minutes working hard the Southampton team.

“We have to show that we are playing at home and we want to win this game.

“It will be a tough game for us but an important one.

“The next weeks are important for us to show which direction our development goes.

“We have built with ten points in the last games since I am here a good next step in leaving this relegation zone.

“It’s very important we have a good start at the weekend and find the right shape.

“We saw on Wednesday that we can use two shapes in a different way. The second the 4-2-2-2 was a very interesting signal for me that the team can immediately change to a different shape, and this shape worked very well. It’s an option for the weekend.”