Saints take on Athletico Bilbao in their final pre season friendly before the start of the Premier League season six days later, read what Dan thinks of the game ahead here.

On Sunday Saints will play La Liga side, Athletic Club Bilbao in their final game of pre-season before the Premier League kicks off at home to Watford next Saturday.

Bilbao are likely to be the biggest test of Southampton’s pre-season fixtures as they’re the only fellow competitors of this season’s Europa League and have a high-quality squad.

Just like Saints, they qualified straight through to the competition’s group stage, finishing one place higher of fifth than Southampton in Spain’s top-flight.

The last time Southampton faced Bilbao was in 2010 when the two competed in the Markus Liebherr Cup, a pre-season tournament at St.Mary’s in honour of the great man that Bilbao won.

There are definitely similarities between the two clubs, both have red and white stripes on their home shirts, both are based in port cities and they both also pride themselves on bringing through young talent instead of spending big money on players in the transfer market.

My Prediction: I enjoyed the match against Espanyol on Wednesday and thought we played well and were unlucky to not win the match. Hopefully the team will have improved in training on that performance on Wednesday evening and us fans will get an idea towards what the starting line-up will look like against Watford. I think we can finish pre-season unbeaten but Bilbao are a very good side so I think the score will be 2-2.

Key Player: For me Pierre Højbjerg impressed lots when he played in the second half against Espanyol but needs to prove that he can be Wanyama’s replacement. Let’s be honest he’s the most exciting player that we’ve bought so far, he’s got the biggest price tag and has come from a huge club. Pierre has the opportunity to be our key player this season but needs to cement a frequent place in the starting eleven by impressing the manager.

Photo: Action Images

lotus added 06:56 - Aug 7 Bilbo is indeed the biggest challenge of the pre season and i wonder why all games were against team not in this level,if you target to the top.it will need here much better ability then against Espanyol and not to miss good chances other wise they will punish
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halftimeorange added 10:39 - Aug 7 It would be foolhardy to predict today's score. Saints have yet to display too many key players thus far missing from the defence. From what I have seen no real pattern has emerged. Too many first teamers are being asked to perform in positions unfamiliar to them. Saints have allowed three of their top players from last season to depart and have not seemingly replaced them with similar calibre. Certainly I think that Redmond will perform better in a side of higher quality than he has ever been used to but whether he and Austin can replace Pelle and Mane's element of threat and goals must be open to question. Højbjerg looks good but his record suggests that his career has stalled because of inconsistency (which is why, I guess, we have been able to get him) and Pied is really a winger converted with limited success to a full-back according to French pundits. As Austin needs decent deliveries it will be interesting to see whether Pied does have a run-out on the wing if Redman and Tadic are to play more centrally. Add to all this change a new manager whose real success came some time ago and I get the feeling we're going to be treading water at best this season. I'm not usually uneasy about Saints prospects but without a couple more classy additions to the squad we do look thin to me and I can't believe too many think differently if being honest. If today sees wholesale changes again it will not tell us very much and it will be heart in the mouth time against Watford next week although I don't think we'll concede too many goals. This has been a disappointing close season and I'd like to know the real reason Koeman went. Was it perceived lack of ambition, greed or resentment at having the gun held to his head? Despite the sporadic outbursts of facile comments against Les Reed and his team, they have done rather well for Saints in recent years but business has been too quiet for my liking. Nevertheless, I'll be cheering Saints on today.

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