Southampton: What would Saints lose if they sold Mario Lemina?

With Mario Lemina’s Southampton days looking numbered following his exclusion from the pre-season training camp in Austria, we take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Gabon-international.

If there is one tweet to summarise the player’s time on the south-coast, it would be his ill-advised media post from yesterday – a highlight reel of his best moments in the Premier League, titled “I KNOW WHAT I CAN REACH AND I WILL FIGHT FOR IT“.

This being a clear cry-out to interested parties, and mainly that of Manchester United. It would seem now that Lemina is desperate to play for a ‘bigger team’.

Up until this outcry, many Saints fans had voiced their displeasure over the possible departure of the former-Juventus midfielder – this due to his smooth ball-playing ability and physical traits, that make him well adapted to England’s top flight.

It is clear that Lemina is a very talented player – and it can be backed up quite well on such websites such as whoscored.com, claiming that he has no real significant weaknesses whilst also possessing many strengths in his game which include; crossing, tackling, dribbling, aerial duels, ball possession and interceptions.

It makes a lot of sense for a team like Manchester United to be in for a player such as Mario Lemina – given their situation with Paul Pogba, the Gabon-international on paper is a like-for-like replacement to their want away asset.

For curiosity of United fans who might be reading, and going onto why Southampton are keen to sell the player this transfer window – it comes down to a few factors.

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The main reason comes to down to his application, and despite it not being stated on who scored.com – it can be considered to be his main, if only weakness.

Mentioned about the highlight reel earlier in the article, it summarises his dedication to Southampton’s cause in which it has been questionable since his arrival from Turin two summers ago – as you saw he possesses the talent, but these moments have been few and far in between.

The tweet only cements Lemina’s desire to leave Saints.

It is no real secret that he has had injury/fitness issues during his tenure at Southampton, having missed 134 days of football over the past two seasons due to a combination of an ankle injury and an abdominal strain – as a result he has struggled for fitness.

This might seem like a harsh critique of Lemina, given it is rather unfortunate to sustain injuries like these – but on return has looked ‘off the pace’ and rather unfit despite having time to get back to match fitness, and therefore has not fit into Ralph Hasenhuttl’s high press philosophy.

His relationship with the mentioned manager of Southampton in Hasenhuttl, it is another reason why the club are looking to offload – with the Austrian manager having a settled midfield duo in his preferred formation for the upcoming season, there is no first team place currently for Lemina.

Clearly wanting out of the club, it makes logical sense for Southampton to cash in on their want-away asset in Lemina to fund a move for a new centre-half.