Ronald Koeman has emphasised top scorer Graziano Pelle’s importance to Saints – but insists he would replace him with Shane Long if needed.

The Italian striker is enduring a barren run, with no goals in his last nine Premier League starts and just two in his last 18 league games, but remains a vital element of the way Saints play.

With £12m man Long back to fitness again after fracturing his ribs, Koeman does have options – even though it would require a change in style.

However, dropping Pelle – who has gone 817 minutes since his last league goal against Everton on December 20 – is certainly not an option the Saints manager is considering for tomorrow’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.

Koeman, below, said: “He’s (Pelle) important in our ball possession, because he’s always the target man and people around him have their movements.

“He’s not a typical number nine who scores goals and nothing else – he’s an important player for our ball possession.

“Okay, still he is doing well in that, but, of course, every striker looks to score goals.”

Koeman added: “I’m not a manager to change too fast positions.

“Ok, if you have real competition you can change.

“We can put Shane in front, and it’s a good option, because against Ipswich (in the FA Cup) Shane played in front, but it’s a different type of a number nine.

“Pelle is more a target man, Shane or Sadio are more runnings from players. It’s different, but we can use both.

“You need that as a team, to have different options.

“If it takes too long, of course, you think as a manager about one different system, or two different players in front, to try something else – but it’s not for this weekend.”

Saints will be looking to end a barren run of their own against West Bromwich, having only managed one goal in their last 388 minutes of league action.

Daily Echo: Sadio Mane

Koeman might consider playing Sadio Mane (above) through the middle off of Pelle at The Hawthorns.

That was a tactic which worked so successfully before the Senegal international was injured and then went off for Africa Cup of Nations duty.

“That’s a possibility,” admitted Koeman.

“He’s very fast and maybe away we play a little bit more with space than we play at home.

“Maybe sometimes we take more time to build up, to have ball possession and really to wait the good moments to have good space to play. Of course, then Sadio is a good player for that.”

Koeman has been working on attacking play in training since the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool last Sunday, and believes goals are around the corner.

“I try to put good exercises in the training sessions, to give and to mention and to talk with them about options, movements and trying to bring in positions to score goals,” he explained.

“More finishing in training sessions, doing different movements and try to give them that confidence, what’s important to be good in a game.

“You can’t do everything. It’s up to the player and the rest of the players to create the movements and the chances.

“Of course we have maybe a little bit more struggling in scoring, but still we were creating good chances in all the games what we had.

“It’s close, it’s not far away.

“They need a goal and they need the confidence, but as a manager you try to speak about that and to do sessions for giving them that confidence.”

He continued: “It’s a little bit different now.

“I watched the Liverpool game back, and most of the time Liverpool was not defending with three centre backs. They were defending with five at the back, and that’s more difficult.

“Teams now playing not so open, they know our qualities, and this Saturday will be exactly the same.

“They (the opposition) go back, they are defending and they wait for one or two good counter attack moments to score and to try to score about set-pieces, the quality of them. That makes it more difficult.

“You have to be more patient, you have to wait, to really understand that in the last pass you need really the focus, the confidence, to play the right ball.

“If you get a chance sometimes we try to do it on a nice way to score – no, it’s not about how you score, it’s about the ball needs to go in.

“Maybe we need a little bit more that effective mentality to change that situation.”