Jesus Perez defends understrength team

Southampton assistant manager Jesus Perez has defended the decision to field an understrength side in their FA Cup defeat to Sunderland on Saturday.

Craig Gardner's second-half strike at the Stadium of Light sent the Black Cats through to the quarter-finals of the competition.

Perez told the Daily Echo: "We played the best team we decide to play.

"We assess our players, we know how they are, we know which problems each other got from the last game and we decide the best team to play.

"I repeat again: we trust every single player we have in our squad."

Artur Boruc and Jose Fonte were given a rest, while Jay Rodriguez and Morgan Schneiderlin only came on as second-half substitutes.