SAINTS boss Ronald Koeman has challenged his players to improve their Europa League chances by boosting their St Mary’s goals record against Hull City.

Top scorer Graziano Pelle is without a goal in 14 games and Saints only have five from their last nine Premier League matches.

Koeman said: “It’s not a problem about one player. At the beginning of the season opponents don’t care about how they play against Southampton, but we don’t get that space we got in the beginning.

“So it’s even more important to have good movement and confidence in the front positions. It’s not only about Pelle, we need midfielders to do the passing on the right moment.”

Saints have scored 27 Premier League goals in 16 games at St Mary’s, but Koeman points out that nearly half of those came in two games.

“We scored 12 goals in the games against Newcastle and Sunderland,” he added, before agreeing that Saints are to an extent a victim of their own success. “Yes, it’s it more difficult now as there isn’t really a lot of space.

“People talk about Liverpool’s three centre-backs but they played with five defenders against Southampton.”

Koeman expects the same from Hull, whose manager he knows well having first come across Steve Bruce while playing for Barcelona in the 1991 European Cup Winners Cup final won 2-1 by Manchester United.

“We lost so my goal was not important!” he laughed. “I know Steve Bruce well I played against him three or four times and met him again in the Algarve last summer. He’s a nice person and is doing a great job at Hull.

“They normally play with five defenders and that means there’s not a lot of space. You have to play very good or have a player who makes the difference but that sort of high-quality player is not playing for Southampton.

“Hull need points and of course they’re in a difficult situation. That makes it more difficult so we need to show our qualities, press them and maybe they’ll make mistakes.

“We know if we make the first goal normally we win the game.”

Steven Davis and Florin Gardos have returned to the squad but Filip Djuričić is unavailable with an ankle injury.

Meanwhile, with Fraser Forster sidelined for the long-term, Koeman has denied any interest in Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici. “Who?” he said. “That’s not true.

“But of course we’ve thought about the goalkeeping situation. We have to make a decision about what we want to do next season.”