Yan Valery enjoys competing with Cedric Soares for his place in the Southampton starting line-up and will be using the Portugal international’s presence as motivation throughout the season.
The youngster, as quoted by The Daily Echo, explained his thoughts on having Cedric back at the club after his failed loan spell at Inter Milan in the second half of last season.
Valery has made the position on the right-hand side of the defence his own since Ralph Hasenhuttl came in but remains conscious that he must work hard to keep Cedric out of the team.
He said:
He [Cedric] makes me work hard. Even if I am already working hard, it makes me work even harder. He is an experienced player, so I can learn from him. It’s been really good. Even if he wasn’t there, I would be working just as hard.
Read Southampton’s verdict
Valery hasn’t started the season particularly impressively but remains a hugely promising player. He is just 20-years-old and has shown enough attacking prowess, at the very least, to justify his place in the team for the upcoming trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.
But for near misses from our forwards at Burnley and Liverpool, he could have already had two assists to his name. His crossing has markedly improved, and he is displaying plenty of promise in the final third. It is at the other end of the pitch that he has struggled in recent times.
Valery has been bypassed a little too easily in the first two games of the season, with wingers sensing an opportunity to exploit space down the flank. This is something that simply must improve if he is to keep his place in the starting line-up, as there is a genuine risk that this haphazard defending could cost Saints valuable points.
Cedric is back and is ready for action, but in truth, it appears as though many who are calling for him to return have forgotten just why he was offloaded in the first place. He was abysmal, like many, under Mauricio Pellegrino and hardly improved under Mark Hughes, failing to deliver an accurate final ball going forward and losing his focus all too often defensively.
He remains a solid enough player, and it’s good to have genuine competition for places in a previously weak area of the squad. However, keeping the faith in Valery – who could yet be Southampton’s right-back for years to come – makes a little more sense to me at the moment, with Cedric a reasonable deputy should his return to the team be required.
