Finn Azaz and Kuryu Matsuki have three goals each, so who is Southampton's bigger threat?

Pick the bigger threat and it is Finn Azaz, although Kuryu Matsuki makes the answer closer than the scoring column suggests.

Azaz's chance creation

FotMob's profile for Azaz, which stops at late September, has him on three goals and four assists from eight games. He has created 16 chances, three of them big, and he is listed first as an attacking midfielder with spells on either wing.

Watch him against Bristol City on the 12th September and the job is clear: one goal, two assists and a day when Southampton's attack ran through him.

FotMob has him averaging 7.60 across his games, against 7.06 for Matsuki, who has 793 minutes from 12 appearances and eight starts. Those are two good players with different jobs.

That is the difference. Azaz is the player who makes the goals happen for others as well as for himself, so a defence cannot simply sit on the player and hope.

Matsuki's goals against the chances

Matsuki is the right winger Eckert trusts, in the words of Saints Marching's winners and loser column from West Ham. He opened the scoring there inside two minutes and played 73.

His other two came against Bristol City and in the 1-0 win at Norwich. That is a forward scoring when it counts, and Eckert will love him for it. That doesn't bode too well for Tom Fellows, who has only managed a single goal in the same time that Matsuki has been at the club.

FotMob puts his expected goals at about 1.67 from 17 shots, which sits below the three he has actually scored. A finisher can stay ahead of his chances for a while, though not forever.

Then there is the fit. With Lewis Dobbin expected to lead the line, per The Hard Tackle's preview, the wide men need to bring goals and not only service. Saints Marching's preview of who starts against QPR says both are unlikely to lose their places.

QPR will plan for Matsuki on that right side, because that is where the goals have come from. If Azaz is used well, a QPR full-back has to choose between helping out and staying with his man.

That choice is what makes Azaz such a potent threat. Azaz forces it, and Matsuki profits from it.

So back Azaz as the bigger threat, and enjoy Matsuki for as long as the finishing holds. Southampton are better with both on the pitch on Saturday.