Saturday 24 January 2015 13:04, UK
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman says Alan Pardew has transformed the fortunes of Crystal Palace following his arrival at Selhurst Park.
Southampton beat the Londoners 3-1 on Boxing Day, a result which prompted the end of Neil Warnock's time in charge of the club.
Former Palace defender Pardew was enticed south from Newcastle within days and has seen the Eagles win all three of his games in charge
Palace head into Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Southampton at St Mary's full of confidence and Koeman has no hesitation in pinpointing the reason for their bullish outlook.
They have a spirit in the team, the confidence and they have had a great start under Alan Pardew.
"They have a spirit in the team, the confidence and they have had a great start under Alan Pardew," said the Dutchman.
"The first win against Dover was normally an easy FA Cup round for them, but the first victory in the Premier League against Tottenham Hotspur gave everybody confidence.
"At the moment they are more difficult to beat than over Christmas on Boxing Day. They have new players and a new manager and that always means some changes in tactics or organisation in the team and I think the manager is more happy than he was before, and that's important.
"I am lucky I don't have a lot of numbers of players to think about to make changes. The players who weren't available in the last week are still not available for this weekend.
"That means we have 17 or 18 players and of that 17 or 18 players we have already five or six Under-21 players. There is no time and no reason to think about making changes and we will put out the strongest team we can."
Toby Alderweireld, Victor Wanyama and Morgan Schneiderlin are unavailable, joining long-term absentees Sam Gallagher and Jay Rodriguez in the treatment room.
International commitments mean Sadio Mane, Emmanuel Mayuka and Maya Yoshida are also missing, but Saints are on an eight-match unbeaten run and will have a sell-out St Mary's crowd behind them.
"We had some days off this week, we didn't play during the week," Koeman said. "The players are back in a good freshness and in a mental way I think the players are very strong because we are winning.
"We had a great week last week with very good results in difficult games and we like to go on."
