Pre-season recap: Southampton 3-3 Schalke 04

Southampton’s 2018 pre-season kicked off in a lively fashion, with six goals in a fairly interesting affair in China.

The Saints’ supporters got their first taste of what may be to come this afternoon, with Southampton setting up in a three-at-the-back formation for both halves of football.

It offered plenty of talking points also as at this point fans are aware that the main focus is to simply build up fitness levels – the Saints were without new signing Mohamed Elyounoussi as well as the quartet who represented their sides at this year’s World Cup in Russia.

Despite this there was still some nice football on show, with Nathan Redmond and Harrison Reed’s goals either side of half-time both impressive in their own right – Southampton’s other strike came courtesy of a deflected effort from youngster Jake Hesketh.

In addition to seeing Shane Long play as the side’s only natural right-sided player, the first-half also saw the return of Matt Targett, as well as a first appearance in red and white for Stuart Armstrong.

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Ukranian Yevhen Konoplyanka opened the scoring for the German side after 21 minutes, but the Saints drew level just before the interval with a smart team goal that saw an nice one-two between Redmond and Charlie Austin, before being tucked home by the former.

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The Saints started the second half in fine fashion as well, with Jordy Clasie playing a superb long ball which found Harrison Reed, with the midfielder finishing smartly from close range. Hughes naturally fielded a different XI for the second half, and for the best part Reed played as a RWB – something we may see more and more this season.

However, with Fraser Forster now in goal, Schalke began chancing their luck from distance and Suat Serdar brought the German side level with a curling finish from just outside the box. The Englishman’s vulnerability was exposed, and it seems like his days with the Saints could be limited.

Thankfully Southampton found it in them to take the lead once again, with Jake Hesketh scoring courtesy of a wicked deflection just before the 70-minute mark.

Sadly, Forster’s poor form showed once again, as Steven Skrzybski scored the goal of the game within the last ten minutes to bring his side level once again. The 25-year-old’s strike from distance had some immense power, with the Southampton goalie’s poor reaction speed leaving him unable to stop the effort.

Despite the result there were some positives to take from the game, and Mark Hughes will hope to build on those when they face Jiangsu Suning next Wednesday.