RALPH Hasenhuttl reckons his Saints squad is deep enough to deal with the injuries to a host of key players.

Nathan Redmond, Sofiane Boufal and Kyle Walker-Peters will all be missing from today’s squad to face Aston Villa.

Redmond’s out for at least a month, with it being hoped that Walker-Peters and Boufal return in time for next weekend’s trip to West Ham.

“In the shape I play, I have a very balanced squad and that means from number 12 to number 18,” claimed Saints’ boss.

“We have almost two players in every position and also a few youngsters who are coming now,

“Maybe the time will come where they are playing at St Mary’s and I think this is our way.

“We have this target to develop the young guys and it will help us to have a few guys in the academy coming up.

“We have double in every position and a fight for every position. This is what we need.”

Asked whether he’s relieved the injury pile-up has come at a time when they aren’t facing the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Leicester, Hasenhuttl insisted it doesn’t matter who they play.

He added: “It shouldn’t make any difference whether we are playing a bigger side or one that sits around us.

“The Premier League games are all tough for us and we know that if we want to win them we need to have a perfect game.

“We had good ones over Christmas, and also against Liverpool and Burnley, but we didn’t take points in those.

“We must find our way back to the way where we can get the points.”

Saints and Aston Villa have the Premier League’s leakiest defences this season, with Hasenhuttl’s side conceding 48 compared to Villa’s 50.

Problems at the back have led to the St Mary’s outfit losing three of their last four Premier League matches.

Because of this, Hasenhuttl is desperate for them to tighten up in defence in order to give themselves a better chance of victory.

“It’s about more concentration over 90 minutes. We must have a better defence again because this was a big quality in the games we won,” added Hasenhuttl.

“We had a clean sheet against Chelsea and a clean sheet against Tottenham.

“This is the key to winning and it’s what we have to focus on. We can do this, and we’ve shown we can do this.

“But we now have a different back four and different number 10s.

“In the very successful term, we always played with the same squad who were very committed and organised. We are working our way back to this.”