Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has said that he has no intention of fielding a weakened side against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup this weekend, in the hope that his side can continue building some momentum.

The Saints have gone eight games without defeat to get their Champions League charge back on track and progress through to the fourth round of the famous cup competition.

Despite the fixtures piling up - a scenario not helped by the fact that Southampton had to face Ipswich Town in a replay in the last round - Koeman will field his strongest side at St Mary's on Saturday afternoon.

"Of course, the Premier League is the most important [competition] but I believe in winning," he told reporters. "I'm lucky that I don't have a lot of numbers of players to think about making changes.

"We'll put out the strongest team that we can. We've had some days off this week and the players are back in freshness. We had a great week last week with good results in difficult games, and we'd like to go on."

Southampton are currently third in the Premier League table with 22 games of the season played.