Southampton fans will have been delighted with their 1-1 draw against Manchester United on Saturday, and rightly so. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side picked up their 4th point of the season with a home draw against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Red Devils, even if they had to play the last 20 minutes with ten men.
As the game drew on, it became less and less obvious that the home side were without one of their best attacking talents in the form of Nathan Redmond. The winger picked up an ankle injury last week in a Carabao Cup win over Fulham.
In place of Redmond, the Saints deployed the Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal, and with an attacking trio of Boufal, Che Adams and Danny Ings the home side looked dangerous on Saturday’s early kick-off at St. Mary’s and Boufal certainly performed as Redmond’s replacement.
When looking at Redmond’s displays last season, the winger-cum-forward posted some impressive statistics. Throughout the 2018/19 season, the ex-Norwich man averaged 2.4 dribbles, 1.4 key passes and 1.9 shots per game in the Premier League, via WhoScored, as one of the Saints best players.
Meanwhile, Boufal in his display against Manchester United put up similarly impressive numbers, as he registered three shots, one key pass and two dribbles in the 1-1 draw during his 71 minutes of action on the pitch, via WhoScored.
If Boufal can continue in his fine form then there’s no reason why he can’t be used alongside Redmond when the Englishman is back to fitness, and it would make sense to use them together, alongside one, or even two, of the club’s striker, then the Saints may be set to rise up the table from their current position of 13th.
