Pre-season friendly preview: Southampton vs Jiangsu Suning

Southampton play their second pre-season game on Wednesday as they face Jiangsu Suning at 1:05pm in the second match of their tour of China.

Mark Hughes will be looking for further progression from his Southampton players in this one following on from their 3-3 draw with Schalke 04 last Thursday where they showed some promise ahead of the 2018/19 campaign.

Jiangsu go into this match in the middle of their domestic season where they are currently in 4th in the Chinese Super League. Notable players amongst their squad include former Shakhtar Donetsk attacker Alex Teixeira and former Chelsea midfielder Ramires.

With the off-season still in its early stages, Saints could again give 45 minutes to each of the players they have taken on tour. A first-team was fielded in the first-half against Schalke whilst a youthful side put in a good display after the break.

Some intelligent attacking produced three goals for Saints last time out, with each of Nathan Redmond, Harrison Reed and Jake Hesketh getting on the scoresheet. The only travelling players to not receive 45 minutes of action were Callum Slattery and Jake Vokins.

Next: Saints close to signing Manchester City's Angus Gunn

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Southampton squad

Stuart Armstrong, Charlie Austin, Ryan Bertrand, Jordy Clasie, Steven Davis, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Jake Flannigan, Fraser Forster, Manolo Gabbiadini, Sam Gallagher, Jake Hesketh, Wesley Hoedt, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Alfie Jones, Mario Lemina, Harry Lewis, Shane Long, Alex McCarthy, Sam McQueen, Nathan Redmond, Harrison Reed, Oriol Romeu, Jack Rose, Josh Sims, Callum Slattery, Jack Stephens, Matt Targett, Jan Valery, Jake Vokins, James Ward-Prowse

Jiangsu Suning squad

Gu Chao, Li Ang, Tian Yinong, Zhou Yun, Yang Boyu, Ramires, Liu Jianye, Alex Teixeira, Xie Pengfei, Zhang Xiaobin, Tao Yuan, Nan Xiaoheng, Gao Dalun, Gao Tianyi, Erpan Eximjan, Zhang Lingfeng, Abduhamit Abdugheni, Cao Haiqing, Wu Xi, Li Haitao, Ji Xhang, Zhang Jingyi, Yang Jiawei, Yang Xiaotian, Gabriel Paletta, Wu Fan, Huang Zichang, Wang Song, Qi Yuxi, Liang Jinhu, Richmond Boakye

Elyounoussi could feature

This match could be the first time that Saints fans see new signing Mohamed Elyounoussi in the red and white stripes after he joined up with the squad this week.

If the Norwegian is to get onto the pitch, it will be interesting to see where he is fielded. He has operated from the left-wing for much of his career but could play a central role like Nathan Redmond did against Schalke.

Potential new signings Jannik Vestergaard and Angus Gunn could also be watching this one closely with deals for them to join Saints from Borussia Mochengladbach and Manchester CIty respectively said to be close.

Jiangsu have been in decent form in their last four matches with two wins and a loss coming in three recent friendlies and a 0-0 draw being played out against Guangzhou R&F in the Chinese FA Cup on Sunday.

This match will be played at the Xuzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, which is situated in Jiangsu and has a capacity of around 35,000.