Matt Le Tissier's best Southampton XI from the last four seasons
Friday 18 September 2015 09:36, UK
Club legend Matt Le Tissier has named his best XI to have played for Southampton since their Premier League return in 2012.
With the club rated among the best developers of players around, six former Saints make the line-up, including two from Super Sunday's visitors Manchester United - although Luke Shaw will not face his former club after breaking his leg in Champions League action in midweek.
Le Tissier has left out current Southampton stars Ryan Bertrand - despite the left-back making last season's Premier League team-of-the-year - Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle.
The Soccer Saturday pundit said: "The toughest choice was picking Rickie Lambert over Graziano Pelle. But the volume of the goals Lambert scored and also getting us in to the Premier League just tipped it in his favour.
"From a sentimental point of view it would have been lovely to have Lambert back when things didn't work out at Liverpool, but it would have been tough for him to come back into the side, with Pelle proving himself last season.
"There's three in there from last season's signings, including Alderweireld who I was disappointed to see choose to join Tottenham. That was a tough one to take when we didn't get him, given we supposedly had first option.
"Clyne has had a really good start for Liverpool and definitely improved their side. He's probably the one signing that Liverpool were happiest with."
On Shaw he added: "Last season was tough for Luke, with fitness issues as well as his form, but this season has been 10 times better for him and we were starting to see what this boy can do.
"He's still young and will be learning for years to come yet. He absolutely has the potential to go on and be a world class full-back, it just depends whether he has the application and hunger to keep improving.
"The best is also still to come from Lallana at Liverpool and the second season he had with us was the best we've seen from him.
"Meanwhile, Jay Rodriguez was picked on the strength of his first season in the Premier League. He obviously had that bad injury and, while he's not quite back to where he was, he's still got a lot to offer."
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