Southampton boss Mark Hughes has thrown down the gauntlet to his fringe players to help end the Saints’ Premier League woes.

Manager Hughes takes his side to Everton in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday having won just twice in all competitions this season.

Saturday’s 2-0 league defeat at Wolves was a fourth defeat in seven league games which left the Saints 16th in the table.

Angus Gunn, Maya Yoshida and Steven Davis – who are yet to start in the league this season – are likely to feature and Hughes insists there are places up for grabs in his top-flight team.

He said: “Clearly we haven’t won as many games as we wanted to.

“They will feel, and I will feel, if there’s a chance the team can be improved because someone has shown some good endeavour to get into the team clearly I’ll consider it.

“We made changes last time against Brighton and we put in a really good performance.

“A number of those players made a claim and pushed themselves more into my thinking. I fully expect a number of them on Tuesday to do the same. That’s up to them, they need to show me they are able to help us.

“They are all good players and a lot of them have been disappointed. It’s been a little bit unfair for them, they haven’t done anything wrong. We just have a fully fit squad and I can’t pick everyone.

“Someone has to miss out but the majority of those players will play on Tuesday and we’ll see how we go.”

Shane Long is unlikely to be risked having missed the weekend’s defeat at Molineux with a toe injury.

The winners will earn a fourth-round trip to Leicester later this month with Southampton having won 1-0 at Brighton in the second round.

Hughes added: “It’s still a competition we want to do well in.

“We have been unlucky with the draw, two away ties against two Premier League sides, but we have got strength in depth and I’m hoping some of those guys will make a claim.”