Martin pleased with pre-season progress
Russell Martin took plenty of encouragement from the way Southampton were able to assert their authority against high-quality opposition in AZ Alkmaar at St Mary’s.
The visitors were 1-0 winners in Saints’ final pre-season friendly of the summer, but it was the hosts who shaded the possession and chances.
Substitute Mayckel Lahdo struck the only goal in the 65th minute for Alkmaar, who reached the semi-finals of last season’s UEFA Europa Conference League and finished fourth in the Dutch top flight.
“I quite enjoyed it, we were very dominant,” Martin reflected. “We limited to them two shots, one in each half, and we concede from one of them, which is really frustrating, and we don’t quite make enough of the opportunities we have in their final third.
“We just need to look for that killer pass a little bit more, be a bit more all-in there, but every test we face is going to be so different, and they posed us different problems playing against a really top opposition today, and there will be lots of learning from that as well. Of all the tests we faced, this one and Benfica were the least similar to what we’re going to face in the Championship.
“There are definitely things we can work on, but we also need to make it relevant to what we’re going to face at Hillsborough this week in training, and make sure the lads are really prepared for that. Out of possession it’ll be a very different test against Sheffield Wednesday.
“It gets us a step closer, gets us more ready to win there, which is obviously the aim, but I’m really pleased with the overall performance and how the team looks from where we started four and a half weeks ago to where they are now.
“It’s about turning that possession, while we’re doing that, to go and kill and score at the right moments. Today there were some brilliant moments, we just have to make more of them when we get there, so overall I’m really pleased with the players and really excited about the start of the season.”
