Mauricio Pellegrino has had a low key arrival and first few weeks at Southampton FC since his appointment last month, but now he prepares to put out his first side against St Gallen.

It is into the unknown for Saints fans as they await to see just what Mauricio Pellegrino is made of, Claude Puel aside most Saints mangerial appointments have either been familiar faces or as in the case of Mauricio Pochettino been mid season so the new man has been plunged straight into action.

Pellegrino has not had that baptism of fire and has time to prepare his squad, although not all his squad have arrived yet, he has had a little more time than his predecessor who did not have a full squad together till a week before the season started.

Pellegrino puts his first side together a full month before the Premier League opened against Swansea, so if he has one thing on his side it is plenty of time to assess his team and what he feels needs tweaking.

We have heard a lot about the tactical abilities of the Argentinian and the way he likes to put out his sides and adapt them when the needs arise, but the plain truth is there are few Saints supporters who know a lot about him as a manager.

Therefore the game against St Gallen on Saturday will be looked forward too with interest.

But like most early pre season games, there will probably be little concrete learn't, it will be a case of using the full squad and getting them used to being back on the ball again.

But we will be able to glean what his managerial style is,how he operates and how he conducts himself, the game in Switzerland will be more about finding out about the manager than finding out about the team, we know we have some quality players, we know that they were poorly managed last season and the best was not got out of them, we now need to find out if San Pellegrino's tactical style holds water.

One good omen is that as most will know San Pellegrino is a brand of water based drinks (Ok i know all drinks are, but this brand is a little more focused) the translation from Spanish to English is Saint Pellegrino, so very apt.

So at last we get to see our new manager in action, let's hope that he is more Mauricio Pochettino than Claude Puel !

Photo: Action Images

patred added 09:54 - Jul 14 how long before we get a Saint Pellegrino username on here after that article ???
2

ExiledSupporter added 09:59 - Jul 14 Aside from a rather vacuous article and an embarrassingly arduous attempt at a poor pun on Pellegrinos name, I think it is about time that you dropped the endless and increasingly rancorous sniping at Puel. Okay our performances were very uneven and inconsistent last season and CP's rotation of the squad was more erratic than rational at times, but one of your main themes is that he failed to realise the quality of the squad he inherited. You are too willing to gloss over the poor seasons of several key players (Long, JRod, Tadic for instance), the recurring problem of few goals being contributed from our midfield, a problem that has been painfully apparent from well before Puel's appointment; the injury list (esp the loss of Austin and VVD for so long) and the failure to replace key transfer losses (Pelle and Mane and Fonte); and the choice of perhaps too many inexperienced incoming players (not sufficiently well balanced mix of maturity and potential). None of these were Puel's fault. We still finished 8th (much more by luck than judgement, I concede), but last season , unlike the previous season, was a season when the top six were far more consistent in their performance than in RK's second season and the points gap between us and Everton in 7th was considerable. I wish Pellegrino every success of course, but yet again I have the feeling that he is going to be set up again (a little like Puel was last season) ie. to struggle. All the top six and most noticeably Everton trying to bridge the gap, shows that we cannot seriously compete with their affluence. Are we again being complacent, is Reed again slow off the mark, has he been told to apply a 'steady as you go' policy this summer and will we despite all our apparent obstinacy end up selling VVD and Bertrand because we cannot resist the scale of profit that may be dangled before under noses. My biggest concern is that we need to spend on a few good quality players now just to stand still or we have to concede that we cannot compete with the top seven and prepare to celebrate any outcome between 8th to 10th next May.

10

SonicBoom added 10:28 - Jul 14 Funny what you get from an article isn't it. When reading it I was struck by the fact that Nick does finally concede that Puel wasn't very good. Last year he supported the guy and always looked for reasons behind out various struggles beyond just blaming the manager. He often defended him when others didn't. He even used to have a go at those that he deemed to have judged Puel too quickly and had written him off almost from the start due to his boring demeanour. Although in hindsight those that felt that way were in fact proved to be right in the end.

-1

redwight added 10:41 - Jul 14 SonicBoom right, ExiledSupporter wrong.
-9

helpineedsomebody added 10:45 - Jul 14 we were not poorly managed last season still at the top table
4

landerwal added 11:32 - Jul 14 Puel was sacked because of the way the team played. Negative, slow, over emphasis on defence, little or no decisiveness in attack. The last four home games when we failed to score, summed up a whole season of dull matches. None of us have any idea how the new manager will turn out, but I don't think the board would be employing him if he was going to serve up the same rubbish as last season. As far splashing out money on ill thought out transfers, look at Leicester. They spent their Premier Champion's prize money here there and everywhere and are now trying offload six of the duff players they bought.

-1

helpineedsomebody added 11:46 - Jul 14 sacked by mr dof who when he was a manager has a playing record played 7 lost seven a record not beaten in EPL HISTORY.
0

legod7 added 11:58 - Jul 14 Help, CP was the worst man-manager of the club since Branfoot. The rotation of the squad was just unbelievable. Players scored goals then get dropped. JRod away to Bournemouth a prime example. Tadic had a moan to the press about being substituted, then the next thing CP is afraid to drop or even substitute him. Yes, we finished 8th, but we were 15 points adrift of 7th placed Everton and only 6 points better off the 17th placed Watford.We could easily have been dragged into a relegation battle.

5

bstokesaint added 13:37 - Jul 14 Lego I can only guess you have a selective memory, which I'm pleased you have highlighted as it shows the colossal scale of unrealistic and delusional expectation of a section of our fanbase that new managers have to face. Maybe the days of Burley, Poorvliet, Gray, Merrington, Sturrock, Wigley (and they're just the failures I can remember offhand) passed you by in a blur, but we have sure gone through our fair share of bad managers. Puel, got us a cup final and top 10 finish. Let's not get carried away. Good luck Mauricio I say, you're going to need it!

3

aceofthebase added 13:57 - Jul 14 Sonic boom very wrong and exiled supporter so right. It wasn't Puel that lost us games it was the inept performance of so many players.Nick was on Puels back from the beginning apart from one or two mild statements to give Puel a chance to be followed by more sniping.
2

SaintBrock added 22:44 - Jul 14 The match will be little more than a training exercise to get match practice and some stamina into legs. Doubt it will tell us very much at all about the new manager and nothing about his potential first eleven as quite a few of our international players are still away.
3

aceofthebase added 19:02 - Jul 15 So it's 0-0, sounds familiar. I expect we will have a team rotation for next match with lots of possibilities.err aahhh . Let me entertain you!
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls