Pre-season match preview: Southampton vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach

This Saturday Southampton face German side Borussia Mönchengladbach in their final pre-season friendly of the summer.

It comes just eight days before the Saints play Burnley in their Premier League opener, meaning it would make sense for Mark Hughes to field a formation and starting XI similar to what we can expect in the game against Sean Dyche’s side.

Southampton produced a stunning comeback in their last friendly, a 3-2 win over Celta Vigo at St. Mary’s on Wednesday night.

The game could see Southampton new boy Jannik Vestergaard face his former side a lot sooner than he probably expected, whilst BMG could start striker Alassane Plea, who arrived for north of £20 million after the Dane was sold to the Saints.

A win this afternoon would mean the Saints have lost just one friendly from a total of six played, having already won three, drawn one and of course been thumped by Derby.

But Mönchengladbach themselves have already played a half dozen games since the last Bundesliga season concluded, with a total of eight to play with match against Espanol to come before the start of their next campaign.

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Last year the German side finished ninth in the top tier, but scored more goals than any side out of the top six. This comes before their big-money addition of Plea. Despite this, creative talent such as Thorgan Hazard are unlikely to feature against the Saints, as the Belgian likely still on holiday after his World Cup endeavors with his national side.

Meanwhile Southampton are still yet to see Cedric Soares return to the first-team squad, despite seeing his teammate Maya Yoshida return – the duo were knocked out at the same stage of the World Cup meaning doubts are being cast over the former’s future.

Nonetheless Southampton will hope that a win this coming afternoon will propel them into the first game of the season full of confidence. Despite BMG’s positives they pose no more of a threat than Celta Vigo would’ve, and Mark Hughes’ side eventually despatched of them on Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether Southampton will actually recruit any fresh faces between now and the transfer deadline, and if the side put in a poor attacking show tomorrow, supporters will almost certainly begin to panic. It was seen as a priority above just about every other position bar the centre of defence, but so far no real attacking reinforcement as been brought in outside of Mohamed Elyounoussi.

Kick-off at St. Mary’s Stadium is at 3PM.