Saints took on Espanyol at St Mary's for the second year running and it was a case of deja vu for those present with another 1-1 draw.

Claude Puel walked out in front of his home fans for the first time tonight in the penultimate pre season friendly but was still unfortunately unable to put out a full team due to Soares and Fonte only returning to training this week.

It was therefore still a starting side that looked a little experimental rather than the real thing, the back four was missing three of the first choice players with Soares, Fone and Bertrand all missing and Martina, Yoshida and McQueen deputising.

The first half saw Saints have several good chances although the visitors struck a post before Oriol Romeu scored with a header just after the half hour and they nearly doubled the lead with the Espanyol keeper making a great save from a Tadic freekick, Nathan Redmond also having a good chance.

But it remained 1-0 at half time and Claude Puel made several changes for the second half, one of whom was new goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

Saints started the second half brightly with half time sub Charlie Austin drawing a smart save from the keeper and Redmond again going close, but it was the visitors who scored the next goal when Van Dijk was judged to have tripped an Espanyol player in the area and the subsequent penalty drew the Spanish side level with 20 minutes to play.

Saints made more changes including Jay Rodriguez in the final stages, but J Rod aside it seemed the French manager was not looking at the result bu at blooding a few youngsters and the game saw no more goals for either side and the result was a repeat of the 1-1 of last year.

Again this was a game that was about Puel testing his squad, he did not seem to have a time in the game when he had what most Saints fans would consider first choices on the pitch all at the same time, of course some of that was due to the late arrival after the Euros of some of the players, but some of which was Puel himself who seems to want to look at all his squad before passing judgment on where he needs to strengthen next.

The crowd of 8,984 will go home pleased to have seen a few new players. but perhaps still not knowing just what Claude Puel has up his sleeve for the seasons opener against Watford.

Photo: Action Images

davenbennett added 10:36 - Aug 4 First team I think keeper and back 4 picks itself: Forster; Soares; Fonte; van Dijk; and Bertrand. Mf diamond Base Hojbjerg (or Classie) Middle 2 Davis Romeu Tip (No.10) Tadjic Strikers Long and Redmond Bench: McCarthy; Yoshida, Martina; Classie or Hojbjerg ;Ward-Prowse; Rodriguez ; Austin We have known for ages that Yosh is not good enough for No3 CB. Gardos is crocked again. So, still need better CB. Martina may face challenge from new boy Pied and maybe Targett or even McQueen. In MF got some good players, but no goal scorers. Hojbjerg, Classie, Davis, Romeu, Ward-Prowse and Tadjic will struggle to get ten goals between them. Jay Rod may, but I assume he will go into one of the two striker roles, or could replace Tadjic. I would think we will be lucky if he get more than ten goals this year. Redmond looks good, and gets into the positions, but is not a natural goal scorer. Bit like Walcott, fast but no end product. Again, be lucky if gets ten this year. Puel is working on this aspect of his game, so he could improve and I hope it works. From what Echo says, Austin does not fit well into this narrow system. So, we may need to buy someone who does. So, as I have been saying for ages, need a better CB than Yosh, a better forward than Austin and a goal scoring MF. (My old cry of a player with the engine of Steve Davis but who gets goals).

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Whatsforpud added 12:31 - Aug 4 As is often the case in league matches, we dominated the first half, but the second was more even. Although haven't been a massive fan of JWP, thought he put in a good shift, tracking back. Midfield looked particularly lively, with good crisp passing in tight situations. Still though, the most difficult part of football is putting the ball in the net.
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