The reasons why Southampton have signed left-back Romain Perraud

Southampton have confirmed the signing of left-back Romain Perraud on a four-year deal from Ligue 1 side Stade Brest.

An official statement from the club was released at 3pm on Friday to announce the capture of the highly-rated 23-year-old.

Saints fans will now be wanting to now more and wondering why the club have gone all-out for this man in particular.

His last season for Stade Brest will have a lot to do with it.

Many reasons why Perraud could slot in perfectly with Southampton

In 2020/21, Perraud played 37 games for Stade Brest. They narrowly avoided relegation and finished 17th, but their left-back was a shining light.

He scored three goals and provided seven assists in a largely struggling team, meaning that he has the potential to contribute hugely to the Saints attack in the coming years.

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Crucially, he has already learned how to play the style that he will be playing at St Mary’s.

Brest manager Olivier Dall’Oglio – no longer in charge – switched from using a 4-2-3-1 system to a 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 in October 2020 and utilised it in many of the remaining games up until May 2021.

This is very close to what Ralph Hasenhuttl is trying to implement at Saints, and Perraud’s signing may well allow him to return to using a back four in all stages of a game instead of having to use a back three in build-up without a recognised left-back.

Pressing was also a big part of Brest’s style last season. Via statistics database fbref.com, they made the fourth-most pressures of an opponent in possession in Ligue 1 and Perraud would have been involved in a lot of this from his position.

All of this will hopefully mean that he needs less time to adjust to things, although there will obviously be some differences.

Saints and Ralph Hasenhuttl will see this as a key signing, and this is backed up by the Austrian’s words after the signing was announced earlier today.

Speaking to southamptonfc.com, Hasenhuttl said:

"“He is a high energy, robust guy with good aggression who will bring lots of energy to our play. He has good quality with his delivery from wide and is very competitive with his defending.”"