Premier League rankings: Southampton analysis, line-up & predicted finish

Southampton's managerial talent spotter went wonky for a while but they look back on track with Ralph Hasenhuttl.

This was the club that gave Mauricio Pochettino his first crack in English football, then replaced him with Ronald Koeman who marched the Saints into Europe.

Koeman was succeeded by Claude Puel and the club made a cup final under the Frenchman before two poor appointments in Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes saw Soton slip perilously towards relegation.

Southampton may well have been a Sky Bet Championship club had they not sacked Hughes last December. By the time Hasenhuttl arrived they had just nine points and one win from 15 matches but they were easing down at the finish with 39 points.

Eight of Southampton's nine Premier League victories came with Hasenhuttl at the helm and his return of 30 points from 23 games would have yielded 50 points averaged out across a full campaign.

The Austrian ace showed up well in his German Bundesliga jobs at Ingolstadt and Leipzig, operating a style of gegenpressing which saw him compared to Jurgen Klopp.

With a full pre-season to drum in his preferred 4-2-2-2 formation and raise their fitness levels, Hasenhuttl should make sure Southampton are safely tucked into mid-table as long as they can become a more efficient attacking unit.

Saints scored just 45 goals last season – the same number as Burnley despite out-shooting them 483-360 – and they also finished with 11 goals fewer than Bournemouth even though they averaged the same amount of attempts on target – 4.3 per game.

Rapid Malian Moussa Djenepo is an intriguing counter-attacking option from Standard Liege, but if anyone is to ease the burden on Danny Ings it will surely be Che Adams, signed from Birmingham after scoring 22 Championship goals last season.

No Southampton player has notched more than seven league goals in the past two campaigns but Adams, Ings and a rejuvenated Nathan Redmond look impressive and the St Mary's faithful are right to expect a season of progress.

Southampton (4-2-2-2): Gunn; Valery, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand; Hojbjerg, Romeu; Ward-Prowse, Redmond; Ings, Adams.

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