Dan Sheldon has been speaking on the latest instalment of the Total Saints podcast, where he urged Ralph Hasenhuttl to give Alex Jankewitz another chance in the Southampton starting lineup.
The 19-year-old has failed to make a single appearance since receiving a second-minute red card against Manchester United on February 2, a game where the south coast club went on to lose 9-0.
In the recent UEFA European Under-21 championships, Jankewitz played a starring role as Switzerland saw off an underwhelming England side 1-0, catching the attention of Saints fans back home.
Now, The Athletic’s Sheldon is calling on Hasenhuttl to experiment with some of the youngsters in his first-team setup and to give the versatile midfielder a run of games before the season is out.
He said: “I think that there are more question marks over the defence, in my opinion, as opposed to elsewhere on the pitch. And you look at it, and you think, well, do you suck it up and have some short-term pain and maybe play Jack Stevens and Salisu, and drop two other defenders?
“Or do you just stick with the status quo to see you through to the summer and try and finish as high up the league as possible? I think that’s going to be an interesting thing that Ralph has to manage. And I think we’d all like to see, Tella made such a, you know, a really good impact when he came on a bit earlier in the season, and we saw the impact he had off the bench, and he was even good starting.
“One player I’d like to see more of is Jankewitz, whether that’s because he’s made that humongous mistake at Old Trafford, and that kind of mystique grows, and then we saw what he did with the Swiss Under-21s, and he looked really good. So, I’d like to see him given another go.”
TIF Thoughts on Jankewitz…
With the Saints currently in mid-table and almost guaranteed to avoid relegation given the nine-point gap between themselves and the bottom three, now could be the perfect time to see whether the likes of Jankewitz has the potential to be a Premier League player.
Southampton have an enviable reputation for producing top-level talent, with the likes of Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw and Theo Walcott previously coming through their youth academy, and Sheldon’s call for Jankewitz to get some game time between now and the end of the season is a logical one.
In other news: ‘I don’t understand’ – TalkSPORT pundit blasts Hasenhuttl’s big Southampton decision