Southampton Team Preview

Southampton

Southampton were literally a few bad moments away from being relegated last season and it was a real wake up sign for this club. However, it seems like the Saints will be in for another survival battle as they have hardly improved over the summer, in fact they may have even gotten worse with their 2nd highest scorer and a top assist man Dusan Tadic gone to Ajax, but it really depends on whether the new players can adapt to the league after all they may be better this season (lots of uncertainty). The biggest signing Southampton have made was Mohamed Elyounoussi from Basel and they’ve also loaned in Danny Ings from Liverpool who will be looking to recapture the form that got him to Liverpool. Southampton will desperately need Elyounoussi to adapt because even with Tadic they were not the best side going forward only scoring 37 and the addition of Ings should provide added depth in strikers position and he should help Southampton improve in terms of goals as he is a decent goal scorer when he plays. Southampton have also strengthened their defence with the addition Jannik Vestergaard from Monchengladbach who can hopefully help them in some way improve their backline as 56 goals conceded last season was simply not good enough. To summarise, Southampton did make some decent signings, but they are unproven Premier League players and losing Tadic is a huge blow as he was well adapted to the team and the league and he was massive in keeping Southampton up. Mark Hughes as manager is also a huge question mark, after all he did pretty much relegate Stoke who had a decent team on paper and then barely kept Southampton up. A lot of uncertainty at Southampton but if they can pull it together then maybe they could get back to playing better football but as for now, it’s tough to say. Relegation battle could be looming again as Southampton will look to stay up once again.

Transfers

In – Stuart Armstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn, Jannik Vestergaard, Danny Ings(Loan)

Out – Olufela Olomola, Jeremy Pied, Florin Gardos, Ollie Cook, Armani Little, Will Wood, Richard Bakary, Dusan Tadic, Stuart Taylor, Guido Carrillo(Loan), Ryan Seager(Loan), Sofiane Boufal(Loan), Jordy Clasie(Loan)

Expecations and Results

Last Year’s Finish – 17th

Target for 2018-19 – Avoid Relegation

Key Players – Charlie Austin, Mario Lemina, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Ryan Bertrand, Maya Yoshida, Oriol Romeu

Manager – Mark Hughes