Yoshida relishing defensive competition
Southampton defender Maya Yoshida has spoken of how he and his fellow central defenders must fight for the starting berths this season, the Mirror have reported.
Saints currently have six first-team centre-backs available to them. Mauricio Pellegrino has already used Jack Stephens, Wesley Hoedt, Jan Bednarek and Virgil van Dijk this season, along with Yoshida himself. Florin Gardos is yet to make an appearance.
The return of Van Dijk to the first-team has led to questions of who will start at the back for Saints, given the impressive form of Stephens, Hoedt and Yoshida respectively.
We all know he is one of the best players in the Premier League but realistically he hasn’t played for eight months so it’s not easy to come back and just play.
He will need a little bit of time. We now have Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens so we’ve a lot of competition between players.
Pellegrino had the Dutchman available to him for the first time this season on Saturday against Crystal Palace. However, he favoured the partnership of Hoedt and Yoshida, with Stephens an unused substitute.
There is no guarantee of anyone being in the team, including myself. We all have to ensure every game that we focus for the whole 90 minutes and keep fit. Then it is going to be a good benefit for the team as well.
Japan international Yoshida signed a three-year contract extension with Saints last month and will be hoping to cement his place in the starting line-up as he did last season under Claude Puel.