Southampton: Pellegrino reveals team news ahead of Manchester United
By Chris Hughes
Ahead of Southampton’s toughest test of the season, manager Mauricio Pellegrino has confirmed who could feature and who will miss out.
After eight points out of a possible 15 from his first five league games in charge, Pellegrino has enjoyed a decent start to life at the helm of Southampton, but this weekend he faces his toughest task since taking charge.
Manchester United – joint-league leaders – travel to St. Mary’s this Saturday hoping to continue their impressive start to the season. Jose Mourinho’s side have won four of their five games in the Premier League, as well as tasting victory in both the Champions League and the Carabao Cup.
The Saints go into the game in near-enough perfect shape, with only left-back Matt Targett preventing Pellegrino from announcing a clean bill of health in his pre-match press conference today.
"“It is just Matt Targett, who has had some issues in his ankle, but the majority of them are OK.”"
Meanwhile Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk could make his first start of the season after featuring against Crystal Palace as a substitute last weekend. The 26-year-old has started both of Southampton Under-23’s last two games, scoring in their most recent match against Stoke.
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The idea of both Van Dijk and Wesley Hoedt playing alongside each other is a mouth-watering prospect for Southampton fans and it could become a reality this weekend, having featured together as a back three for a short period of time against Palace. Pellegrino has confirmed that the former could make a start this weekend.
"“We’ll decide tomorrow, but every single week Virgil is important because he is getting better. After a long period of time without playing a game he is training well. It’s good news for us, because we need Virgil, like every single player in our squad.“Virgil is a very important player for us. I think every single week he will improve, but at the same time he needs to train and play, because for me the best training session is playing games.”"
Manchester United meanwhile will remain without star midfielder Paul Pogba, which will make life easier for Southampton’s trio of Steven Davis, Oriol Romeu and Mario Lemina.
However, Romelu Lukaku – who was rested last night – will prove to be a handful for whichever defensive-partnership Pellegrino’s fields this coming weekend.
Southampton versus Manchester United has a 3:00 PM kick-off.