Ward-Prowse believes Saints rotation vital to success

Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse believes rotation is a necessary evil if Claude Puel’s side are to challenge on multiple fronts this season.

The Saints have yet to take three points from their Premier League campaign, but got their season up and running with a 3-0 victory over Sparta Prague in the Europa League as Charlie Austin, twice, and James Rodriguez found the net.

That was despite Puel making seven changes from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, with Ward-Prowse knowing that the whole squad will need to buy into the mentality if St Mary’s is to see success.

“We’re all professional players ready to do the job. We know there’s going to be rotation in the squad to deal with the amount of games we have,” he said.

“We’ve all got to be ready so it’s a credit to the manager for doing that and to us for applying ourselves right on the night.

“Eleven players can’t play every minute of every game. The manager has reiterated that to us before the game and it has shown against Sparta Prague.”

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

European exploits gave Ward-Prowse his first full game of the season, but the 21-year-old was keen to praise Austin’s first-half double, securing a maiden competitive win at the Saints helm for Puel.

Ward-Prowse added: “We needed to use the game as a catalyst to kick-start our season.

“We knew it would be a special night for the whole club and that we needed to get off to a good start.

“I think we executed our gameplan really well. I’m delighted for Charlie [Austin], he’s worked very hard and deserves the two goals, but overall the team performance was very strong.”