Ronald Koeman has insisted Saints WILL field a team capable of beating in-form Manchester United next Monday – despite their injury crisis.

Koeman will be without five first team players for the game at St Mary’s with Morgan Schneiderlin, Jack Cork and Toby Alderweireld joining long term absentees Jay Rodriguez and James Ward-Prowse in the treatment room.

While there are obvious replacements for Alderweireld at centre half, with Maya Yoshida and Florin Gardos in the squad, Koeman faces a dilemma in the heart of his midfield.

With his first four picks to partner Victor Wanyama all out, he is likely to consider playing Steven Davis in a deeper role and starting Shane Long.

His other serious option is to hand Harrison Reed a first Premier League start against the might of Louis van Gaal’s United.

But Koeman needs Wanyama to tread carefully as he, like Schneiderlin and Graziano Pelle, now sits just a single yellow card away from a one-game ban.

The combative Kenyan has been cautioned in his last three outings against Villa, Manchester City and now Arsenal.

No matter what team he selects, though, Koeman remains confident that up against a United side with injury problems of their own he will put out a side capable of winning.

He said: “He (Van Gaal) has by himself enough injured players.

“He needs all his things to his own team because they have a lot of injured players.

“Now, little by little, we also are also a little bit unlucky with injured players.

“There will be a team next Monday who can beat Man United, for sure.”

Saints are currently assessing the full extent of the damage to their injured players.

Though Schneiderlin has all but been ruled out of the United game, Saints are optimistic he will recover for the trip to Burnley a week on Saturday, which would be a huge boost.

Cork has injured his right ankle, the same problem he suffered at Crystal Palace in March. Saints are hoping it will be a quick recovery but are taking no chances.

There will be a very anxious wait to see the full extent of Alderweireld’s injury.

The Belgian international, who has been excellent for Saints this season, pulled up with an injured hamstring in the closing stages of the game at Arsenal.

He was forced to come off to ensure the damage wasn’t significantly worsened, and with Saints down to ten having used all three subs, they finally succumbed to the Gunners.

Koeman has ruled Alderweireld out for a minimum of two weeks, but if scans reveal a more serious tear then that timeline could be considerably extended.

The Saints manager once again hit out at the fixture pile-up his team face, and blamed it for causing muscular injuries, and believes that so many games in such a short period merely favours the big teams who can afford deeper squads.