Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl labelled Saints’ 3-1 win over AS Monaco as his side’s best pre-season performance to date.
Second half strikes from Adam Armstrong, Stuart Armstrong and James Ward-Prowse cancelled out Aleksandr Golovin’s opener, as Southampton claimed a first victory in the build-up to the Premier League season.
Reflecting on a good night’s work, Hasenhüttl said: “I must say we had 90 good minutes, not only the second half but also the first half was better than the result.
“I must say in some cases a really good game from our side. I don’t want to hang it too high, but by far the best performance we have shown so far in pre-season.
“We showed some good patterns with the ball and showed we can press high with this shape. Against the ball was also good, I think. We didn’t give a lot of chances away.
“Everybody delivered what we are asking and this is necessary as this season we have more duels in positions and it gives everybody more pressure.
“Especially the goals help us massively. It’s always good when you score some goals. We are looking at all details and there’s still a lot to improve, but I think we are in a good way.”
Moving into Saturday’s friendly against Villarreal in SO14, Hasenhüttl is looking forward to a final test before his side head to Spurs in the Premier League next weekend.
“I hope we see from Villarreal a strong side against us that shows us some problems that we will still have in this shape, so we can adapt then.
“The better the opponents and the more issues they cause us in pre-season, the better we learn and the better we are prepared for the first game.
“It’s exactly what we wanted. We tried to have this pre-season [against] more top teams to try to force us more and gives more feedback as to what is working and what is not.”
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