Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has given two reasons for starting Joe Aribo over Che Adams in his side's opening day defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, August 6.

In a 3-5-2 formation, Aribo on his English Premier League debut partnered Adam Armstrong in attack but the summer signing from Glasgow Rangers made little or no impact during the game.

In truth, it was a baffling selection by the Austrian football tactician considering that Adams ended the 2021-2022 campaign with a goal involvement of ten for a struggling Southampton side and Aribo's prefers to play as a ball-carrier.

Aribo scored Southampton's best goal in pre-season in the defeat to Villarreal when he picked up possession inside his own half, embarked on an excellent solo run and went past four players before slotting the ball past Pepe Reina.

Hasenhuttl explained that Aribo and Armstrong were given the nod because they had a good pre-season and scored goals.

On his thinking behind not giving minutes to Che Adams, Hasenhuttl was quoted as saying by HampshireLive : "I think we didn’t want to change the two guys up front - Joe (Aribo) and Stuart (Armstrong).

"They deserved to play as they had a good pre-season and they scored goals. In the end, Arma (Adam Armstrong) got the chance to start today because he was a successful striker in pre-season for us. He deserved that."

After a positive start that saw James Ward-Prowse open the scoring, The Saints suffered an opening day loss after conceding four goals.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : southamptonfc.com

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