Southampton striker Graziano Pelle will start scoring soon, says Shane Long

Pelle has not scored in the Premier League since December 20 and has perhaps never looked shorter on confidence than he did in the 1-0 defeat at West Brom.

The forward wasted a glorious chance to equalise in the second half at the Hawthorns, completely missing a side-footed effort from a square ball across the six-yard box, while he also failed to convert another good opportunity late on.

But Long is certain the club’s top scorer will rediscover the ruthlessness he displayed earlier in the season.

“He’s still a threat,” he said. “You can still see the things that he does well for the team, holding the ball up.

“He’s a big, physical presence up front as well.

“He just needs the ball to drop for him and hit the back of the net, then maybe that extra confidence will come. You can see every day in training how good he is as a striker. We all have lean periods in our careers, but I’m sure he’ll come through it.”

While a record of one win in their last five matches has significantly damaged Saints’ hopes of qualifying for Europe – and particularly the Champions League – Long insists they are still well in the fight.

“We still believe in ourselves,” said the former West Brom striker.

“We’ve still trained as hard as we’ve always trained. We have a good squad.

“Everyone is coming back to fitness as well. The bench is the strongest it’s ever been.

“Competition for places is always good. We just need a bit of luck to fall our way and to kick on from there, because we know we have quality to prove why we are where we are in the league.”

Long added: “I think this is the first time all season that we’ve had more or less everybody fit.

“There’s still Jay Rodriguez and one or two more to come back as well.

“You look at the bench [on Saturday] and it’s the strongest we’ve had all year.

“The gaffer has a few options if he wants to change things up. We can cause any team a bit of trouble if we don’t concede early.”