Saints take on Spanish Segunda División outfit CD Castellón this morning in a hastily arranged friendly kicking off at 10am UK time and it could start to reveal Will Still's plans for the coming season.

Back in the 1970's Country & Western singer Charlie Rich had a hit single in the UK with the song Behind Closed Doors and this seems to be Will Still's signature song, with just one friendly played so far and another scheduled to be played in front of fans in his pre season planning.

The Saints manager had hinted that this training camp in Spain would start to see a little bit more into his thinking, but that wasn't the case in terms of the number of players he named in the squad to travel to Spain.

27 players in total will go on the camp:

Goalkeepers

Gavin Bazunu
Alex McCarthy
Dylan Moody
Aaron Ramsdale

Defenders

James Bree
Ronnie Edwards
Ryan Manning
Joshua Quarshie
Joachim Kayi Sanda
Jack Stephens
Yukinari Sugawara
Charlie Taylor
Welington
Nathan Wood

Midfielders

Joe Aribo
Shea Charles
Mateus Fernandes
Moses Sesay
Will Smallbone

Forwards

Cameron Archer
Adam Armstrong
Ben Brereton Díaz
Damion Downs
Samuel Edozie
Ryan Fraser
Jay Robinson
Ross Stewart

So no real clues there in Still's thinking, although with several key players not travelling through injury such as Flynn Downes & Taylor Harwood-Bellis, , it has perhaps meant that Still has had to pad out the squad a little.

But it also sees the return of Matteus Fernandes after international duty, but not of Jan Bednarek who has been rumoured to be one who the club are looking to offload, although he still has two years left on his contract.

So will we get a clue to whom he sees as his key players in the next few days in Spain, although it is not yet clear whether either or both of the two games played will be the usual 90 minute game or another two 60 minute period format as it has been in the last two games played at Staplewood.

The problem for Will Still at the moment though, is not who he wants to keep, but who will leave beyond his control.

In the meantime he still has to keep fit and give gametime to those who will probably leave and that is not good for the manager formulating what he see's as the core of his best team and giving it game time.

Today's game against Castellon was shoehorned into the schedule, so perhaps it will see the manager use it in the same way as the previous games, two different teams in each period, but it could also give a little bit of a clue in who is going to be his first choices and who will be on the fringes.

All Photos Via Reuters

WoolstonSaint2 added 09:04 - Jul 23 I hope it’s a 90 min game and Still starts with the best XI available.
0

derry added 13:21 - Jul 23 Not a particularly encouraging game. 1-1 Castellon looked a decent side and gave both the Saints teams a good game. Bazunu will have put some noses out of joint but man of the match played first half. McCarthy looked awful. Charles looked class. The teams were a mix. Downs didn't play. Saints look as though they have a way to go yet.
0

WanderingSaint added 15:19 - Jul 23 I've just watched the highlights, Downes was named in the team for the first game and was on the pitch, so looks to have recovered and will be ready for the start of the season.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls