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Mauricio Pellegrino has had his Saints squad perfecting their shooting in training as they attempt to break their long St Mary’s goal drought.
The opening day goalless draw against Swansea made it a club record six home Premier League matches on the bounce without scoring for Saints – a total of 545 barren minutes.
New manager Pellegrino admitted he was pleased with a lot of what he saw from his team against Swansea, but was frustrated by that lack of cutting edge which cost them two points in a match they dominated.
He has been working hard with his squad at Staplewood over the last few days to try and rectify the issues, with shooting drills top of his priority list.
“We were working in that way obviously,” he said.
“In my point of view we have been playing 80 or 85 per cent of the game in a good way but in this final third is something that is the most difficult thing to achieve in modern football with ten players behind the ball with small space, not too much time to think about the actions.
“I will repeat that I think we are on the right track and we have to keep going.”
He added: “I will use as a reference our last game, the Swansea game.
“I will take as a reference because we were analysing what they were doing in the past.
“But as a first game the other day, the performance as a reference for us, I’ll repeat that we played in general a really good game, but we couldn’t win.
“But we have to keep going, keep pushing, and we are in the right track.”
Pellegrino has virtually a fully fit squad to pick from for this afternoon’s game.
The only player he is definitely without is Virgil van Dijk, who is still not being considered for first team duties after submitting a transfer request.
Saints are currently battling to prove that they can hang onto their star names, and Pellegrino expects that to happen.
“When I met in the first meeting with Les (Reed) and Ross (Wilson) they told me that they want to keep the best players on the pitch,” he revealed.
“At this moment Southampton want to progress on the pitch and the idea of the club was to keep the best players in the club.
“Ralph (Krueger) was clear, Les was clear, and hopefully I have got the same idea to progress as a team we have to keep our best players.
“If we have the fortune to bring another good player we will be more strong.”
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St Mary’s
3pm BST
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looking forward to 3 points tomorrow 
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