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Pre-season preview: Southampton vs. Derby County

By Chris Hughes

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - JULY 14: Manager of Derby County Frank Lampard looks on during a Pre-Season match between Notts County and Derby County at Meadow Lane Stadium on July 14, 2018 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images)
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - JULY 14: Manager of Derby County Frank Lampard looks on during a Pre-Season match between Notts County and Derby County at Meadow Lane Stadium on July 14, 2018 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images) /
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This afternoon at 3, Southampton will face Frank Lampard’s Derby side in their first pre-season friendly on British soil this summer.

The game will take place at Pride Park, and is the Saints’ third pre-season game of the campaign, having previously drawn with German side Schalke and beaten Jiangsu Suning whilst on their tour of China.

Derby meanwhile have also played two games so far this summer, with Lampard’s side beating Notts County 4-1 before losing 3-1 to Mansfield Town just a couple of days ago. The Saints will be the only top tier opposition that the Rams will play before the start of their Championship campaign.

For Southampton, the game against Derby is the only pre-season match against a fellow English side, as after the tour of France they will play host to Celta Vigo and Borussia Monchengladbach at St. Mary’s – the club have interestingly done business with both of those two teams this summer following Sofiane Boufal’s loaning to the former tonight.

Next: Boufal joined Celta on loan

KUNSHAN, CHINA – JULY 05: Cedric Teuchet of Schalke FC competes the ball with Wesley Hoedt of Southampton FC during the 2018 Clubs Super Cup match between Schalke and Southampton at Kunshan Sports Center Stadium on July 5, 2018 in Kunshan, Jiangsu Provinceon, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
KUNSHAN, CHINA – JULY 05: Cedric Teuchet of Schalke FC competes the ball with Wesley Hoedt of Southampton FC during the 2018 Clubs Super Cup match between Schalke and Southampton at Kunshan Sports Center Stadium on July 5, 2018 in Kunshan, Jiangsu Provinceon, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) /

The game todaycould see a host of debuts handed to players from either side, with Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn and Jannik Vestergaard all likely to get 45 minutes for the away side.

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Although Maya Yoshida, Cedric Soares and Jan Bednarek are all still on extended break after the World Cup, the Saints’ squad is slowly getting deeper and as a result we should start to get a good grasp of how the club will set-up this coming season under Hughes.

Fans will be keen to see if Redmond can continue his goal-scoring endeavours too, having found the back of the net in both of Southampton’s pre-season games so far.

The home side meanwhile could hand first appearances in Derby colours to Florian Josefzoon – signed from Brentford – or Harry Wilson and Mason Mount. The latter duo have signed on-loan from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively, and are tipped for good seasons for the Rams.

But Lampard will want to prove his management skills are just as good as his player-pulling power, and a good result against the Saints would do great things for Derby’s supporters after the less-than convincing result against League Two’s Mansfield earlier this week.

Following the match today Southampton will be swiftly off to France for another camp and fixture, with Mark Hughes’ side set to face Dijon on the 28th of the month. Kick-off at Pride Park today however is 3:00 PM.

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