David Moyes wants Sunderland to use the cup to revive their miserable season.
The Wearsiders have yet to __win a game away from the EFL Cup and have suffered the worst ever start to a Premier League season.
Moyes will experiment to "find a way to win" at Southampton in the hope his side can build some confidence.
Instead of seeing the early rounds as a potential energy sapping distraction, Sunderland will try to create momentum like they did in reaching the final in 2014 during a relegation struggle.
Moyes said: "I do think we need to winning here to build a little bit of confidence and a feel-good.
"Winning becomes a habit, it does. We need a win and I genuinely want to go and get through.
"We went through at QPR after coming back. After that, I know it didn’t work, but we were 2-0 up against Crystal Palace.
"It would have been nice to go into this game after a good draw at West Ham, worked hard, done well to stay in the game.
"But I do think a cup run would be great. I would love to get to a cup final. But it would never take place over being a Premier League team."
Moyes is frustrated that he has not been able to find a tactical formula that works with the limited resources he inherited.
Southampton away is a daunting trip and Moyes added: "It’s a tough game and a tough draw to go away to Southampton.
"If it was home, we would be saying ‘We’ll have a bit of that’. Going to Southampton with the form they are in at the minute… I don’t know what they will do.
"They’ve had a busy schedule with being at Milan and Man City. They’ve got a good squad but my feeling is they will probably change their team as well.
"We don't have lots of Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday games so we shouldn’t have too big a problem with that. I can understand Southampton, if you are in Europe on a Thursday. But it shouldn’t be too big a problem for us."