Onuachu pushing for first Southampton start

Southampton new boy Paul Onuachu could make his full debut in Saturday’s crunch Premier League clash with Wolves.

Nigerian forward Onuachu joined from Genk at the end of the January transfer window and came on as a substitute for the second half of last weekend’s 3-0 loss to Brentford.

Saints boss Nathan Jones has been under intense fire this week from supporters, with some questioning why neither Onuachu and the other deadline day signing, Kamaldeen Sulemana started.

“I understand there’s a lot of things (been said) over the past week but, without going into too much detail, we didn’t start them because they’d spent more time in a passport office and an immigration office than they did on the training pitch,” said Jones.

“So it wasn’t a bad tactical decision, that was a logical decision to protect them rather than to put them into a game and then lose them for six weeks with a torn hamstring or calf.

“Maybe that was to my own detriment but that was the logical and right decision to make. I will make the decisions this weekend in terms of making sure we put out a team that’s potent and can back up the work we’ve done.”

Saints desperately need more goals having netted only 17 times in 21 Premier League games this season and Jones is optimistic the duo can help in that regard.

“We’ve brought them in to add more potency and we saw that on day one,” he said.