Southampton: Saints Marching’s summer transfer window roundtable – Harry Tizard

Q1) Saints fans are clearly wanting an extra defender to be brought in before 5pm on Thursday. Is that the only area that the squad needs strengthening in your eyes?

Most definitely. Looking at the squad, the strength in depth is a particular asset that we have. Not only this, but we have players in each of those areas that can fill out different roles that could be used depending on the opposition that we face.

If you look at the striker spot for example, we have very quick forwards such as Michael Obafemi and Shane Long that suit a very direct and counter attacking style of football for games against possible stronger opposition that we wont have the ability to dominate the game, or in matches that we are needing a goal and need a different option. Then you look at the likely starters, Danny Ings and Che Adams. These are players that are more skilled in the striking areas that will start the majority of the games simply due to the fact that they are much more clinical in the eighteen yard-box and can hold up the ball very well.

Midfield is very similar, we have a ball winning midfielder in Oriol Romeu, suited for games that we will be constantly pressured with opposition counter attacks and need the man in the middle that is a specialist in breaking up the play or giving away tactical fouls. Then you have players like James Ward-Prowse and Pierre Emile-Hojberg (and even Mario Lemina if he does not find a suitable club) that are more versatile in the centre of midfield that can tackle but also have the ability to move the ball forward through either a straight line run or playing direct passes to the wingers to burst up the field.

Then you look at the wingers, Moussa Djenepo, Nathan Redmond, Sofiane Boufal, and Stuart Armstrong can all play out wide (along with Mohamed Elyounoussi who is likely to find a move away from the club before the global deadline at the end of August), meaning Ralph Hasenhuttl is spoilt for choice in the wide areas and will leave some players frustrated with the lack of minutes as there is simply not enough room to give them all a lot of minutes.

The full backs and goalkeeps are very similar, with their being appropriate cover if there is an injury to a starting player.

That leaves the centre backs, and I would argue that even in that area we have strength in depth. If we play with three at the back, the trio of Jan Bednarek, Jannik Vestergaard, and either Jack Stephens or Maya Yoshida is good enough. Despite some debatable performances in pre-season from the back-line, there is certainly room to be optimistic about the back three.

Brought back into the fold by Ralph Hasenhuttl, Jan Bednarek has not only ammased well over thirty competitive appearances for the club, but performed at a very consistent level during that time. In a similar fashion, tall Danish man Jannik Vestergaard is a dominating figure in the Southampton defence, winning an average of 3.7 areal duels and 2.3 tackles a match.

Although there a question marks over Jack Stephens, having a solid pre-season and quite clearly being in the managers plans due to his ability of bringing the ball out the back cannot be ignored. Hasenhuttl got the best out of Nathan Redmond, so there is no reason that he cant do the same with Jack Stephens. There is also sufficient cover, with players such as Maya Yoshida, Wesley Hoedt and youngsters Christoph Klarer waiting in the wings if required.