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Danso In Line For Debut

If there is one team that you probably don't want to make your debut against it is Liverpool, but at least for Kevin Danso it will only get easier should he start against the European Champions.

Ralph Hasenhuttl probably has little choice but to give Kevin Danso a baptimism of fire and throw him into his defence against Liverpool at St Mary's this weekend.

His other central defensive choices aside from Jan Bednarek who despite his inexperience rarely comes off the pitch with any criticism being able to be levelled at him, is one of calamity and chaos.

Jannik Vestergaard improved in the second half of the season and is just about worth his place, but he proved last week at Burnley that he is a stopper not a leader, he needs someone organising him otherwise he loses concentration.

Jack Stephens may well be a good club man and the same can be said of Maya Yoshida, but the reality is that every Saints fans know the problem since Van Dijk and Fonte left and being blunt these two have played the majority of those games between them and are not part of the solution, nothing against them, but they would not get into any other Premier League team so to be blunter they should not be in ours at least not as first choice and no one can deny this is a problem area.

That only leaves Wesley Hoedt and it seems that the Dutchman himself does not see his long term future here, he played in pre season, but is conspicuous by his absence since the final pre season games, if Hasenhuttl is willing to play Boufal then why not put Hoedt in the squad ? Only reason I can see is that the player himself wants to go.

But Ralph knows that he has to do something different for the visit of Liverpool so that only leaves one option left and that is new signing Kevin Danso.

When questioned whether fellow summer signing Moussa Djenepo and Danso could be handed a start, Hasenhuttl had this to say:

"It depends on the history they have, in what club they played, what habits they have learned.

"Some players need longer, some players it takes a short time to get adapted to our game."

"Kevin is now three times with us on the pitch and showed he has good qualities, a young player and is open-minded so let’s have a look.”

So it seems that the Austrian is not afraid to throw in his fellow countryman, perhaps he feels that Moussa Djenepo will need a little more time and a slow introduction, but he also knows a little more about Danso and the fact is that he has brought him in to solve a problem, the only question is when he makes his debut, not if.

This being the case then he has nothing to lose by putting him in he needs strength and athleticism in the centre of his defence, he could desperately do with organisation, but he will not get that with Stephens or Yoshida his only two realistic options, so he has nothing to lose with Danso.

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