Southampton boss Pellegrino reveals delight at Hoedt arrival

The Argentinian manager has spoken about his latest signing Wesley Hoedt, who joined on Tuesday night.

Yesterday was certainly an evening to forget for Southampton supporters, who will be looking ahead to their game against Huddersfield rather than back at Wednesday’s night Carabao Cup exit to Wolves.

But one silver lining from the past couple of days has been the arrival of Wesley Hoedt, who after weeks of speculation has finally joined up with the Saints.

The defender is reportedly the club’s biggest-ever outlay for a centre-back, surpassing the fee spent on Virgil van Dijk two seasons ago.

But Hoedt’s arrival isn’t as a replacement for his Dutch teammate, but instead as an option to play alongside him. Saints fans got a glimpse of what could be to come when the side set up with three-at-the-back last night against Wolves, suggesting that a back-line of Stephens, van Dijk and Hoedt could become a thing.

The towering defender will add some much-needed physicality to Southampton’s back-line, with both Stephens and Yoshida lacking the ability to out-muscle the league’s top target-men. At six-foot-four Hoedt could be just the man to do that.

However, the 23-year-old hasn’t been playing regular football recently, meaning a debut against Huddersfield could be a push. Irregardless of that, his manager is thrilled with his arrival:

"“Hopefully he can help the team. He’s a young boy, left-footed, with quality. Hopefully he can adapt quickly to the dynamic of the team and can help the team to be stronger. “The way of Southampton is to try to bring young players to grow with us and to be with the team three, four or five years together.” – Pellegrino"

Hoedt enjoyed a solid spell with Lazio, making around 20 appearances on average in each of his two seasons after a free transfer from his native Netherlands in 2015.

The defender has experience playing in a back-three in Italy, meaning he should be able to tactically adjust to Pellegrino’s set-up if the Argentine deploys a similar formation to what he did against Wolves last night in the near future.

With van Dijk looking potentially set for a first-team return after he reaches match fitness, Southampton supporters will be itching to see how the two Dutchmen can perform on the pitch next to each other.