Nathan Redmond is starting to adapt to his new position and is showing that he might just be a better all round contributor to the team than the man he is seen to be replacing Sadio Mane.

All of the talk in the early weeks of the season was about how Saints had sold Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane and that they hadn't replaced the goals that these two scored last season, both hit a total of 11 goals each in the Premier League.

In the case of Pelle it was not quite true to say he hadn't been replaced, knowing the Italian intended to leave at the end of the season, the club had snapped up his replacement in January in the person of Charlie Austin. A player with a better goal scoring record than Pelle.

Now both Austin and Redmond have started to show just why the club signed them and they are answering those that say that they cannot replace the goals of the two they replaced.

This time last year Pelle had 5 goals in the Premier League and Sadio Mane a mere 2, if you compare that with the 4 that Austin has and Redmond's 3 then the totals scored are exactly the same when comparing the two respective duo's after 9 Premier League games.

That means the argument that we haven't replaced the goals of Pelle and Mane does not hold water, of course their is a long way to go in the seaso, but indications are that this season's pairing can outscore last terms.

As mentioned Pelle had 5 this time last year and ended on 11, that leaves Austin needing only 6 goals to replicate him and 29 games to get them.

Likewise Mane scored his 3rd goal of the season in the 10th game, but didn't score his 4th for another 5 months, a total of 20 games without a goal, indeed if Redmond is to outscore Mane then he merely needs to be consistent over the next 7 months, nothing more nothing less.

But the supporters also need to remember that Redmond is changing the way he plays, he is used to being an out an out winger with an eye for goal, now he is being asked to play more centrally and be a little more clinical in front of goal, although I would imagine his goals to chances ratio would just need to stay the same, he will naturally get more chances in a more attacking role.

Like Mane he has skill and pace so will bring a lot more to the team than just goals, but the fans need to realise that he is still a work in progress, speaking to the press Redmond said.

“I’m learning a new position,”

“I’m playing up front. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will I transferring into becoming a striker.

“I’m learning daily in training and learning during the games as well. The more I get in those areas the better I’ll get at finishing.”

Redmond has drawn comparisons with former Arsenal winger-cum-striker Thierry Henry but naturally is keen to downplay those.

“If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t be playing,” he explains, when asked if he'd rather have continued to play as a winger.

“He [Puel] made it clear he wasn’t going to play with wide players, but he also made it clear that he’d watched me before and seen me play, so he knew I had the potential to play there [up front]."

“It was about trying it in pre-season and once it came to the first couple of games of the season he told me I was going to be playing there."

“It was either adapt and learn or sit on the sidelines, and I’m never going to shy away from a challenge.”

Saints supporters are slowly but surely being won over by Redmond who apart from his 3 Premier League goals has shown that like Mane he has much to contribute in the built up play when attacking, his pace is a threat to any defender and he has an eye for a cross.

But their memories need to be a little longer, for most of his time here Mane was not a hero to the fans, indeed for much of his first season a sizable section of the crowd thought that we had wasted our money, his late burst of goals in that first season silenced his critics, but those voices of dissent re'emerged when he went those 5 months without a goal.

The £35 million we got from Liverpool made many forget his two seasons and let the fee cloud their judgement and therefore put him up as some sort of goal scoring hero, something he was certainly not apart from the last few games of both of his seasons here.

In Nathan Redmond we might just have found the perfect replacement for Mane, yes it will be about more than just scoring goals, but the reality is that in terms of season's total Redmond doesn't have to do that much to match Mane's 11 form last term, he just needs to be consistent in his scoring over the entire season and not just the final half dozen or so games, if he does that he might well earn us a few more points in the middle of the season than Mane did last year, if that is the case it could be another great season.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 11:46 - Oct 25 Give it a rest Nick. Redmond is showing a lot of promise, but Mane is a class act, and provided much more to Saints and now Pool than the bald statistics you provide will ever show. By all means write up Redmond, Austin etc as being valuable players now under Puel's deft management, but your consistent running down of the best attacking force Saints have ever had is just weird.

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SonicBoom added 11:56 - Oct 25 I agree with most of this and there is a lot to be positive about right now. I would say however that for all the talk that certain players are upgrades on who we've sold there really is only one way to prove it. Win the games. Spurs are above us as are Liverpool etc etc. We are 8th and in that position where we beat the teams below, but are up against that barrier where to progress we need to beat those above us. It's not easy but it can be done. Until we beat Spurs etc then all the talk of these player upgrades is just theoretical.

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pintsizedsaint added 14:07 - Oct 25 Perazi, Mane (and Pelle) "the best attacking force Saints have ever had"? You sure? Not even needing to go back to the likes of Le Tiss, Beattie and Pahars (and also Lambert pre-2012) here: 2012/13 Lambert - 15 goals 4 assists Jay Rod - 6 goals 4 assists Ramirez – 5 goals and 3 assists (yes really!) (total of 26 goals 11 assists from top 3 strike force according to goals scored) 2013/14 Jay Rod - 15 goals 3 assists Lambert - 13 goals 10 assists Lallana - 9 goals 5 assists (total of 37 goals and 18 assists) Overall total of 63 goals and 29 assists 2014/15 Pelle - 12 goals and 2 assists Mane - 10 goals and 3 assists Long- 5 goals and 2 assists (Total of 27 goals and 7 assists) 2015/16 Pelle - 11 goals and 6 assists Mane - 11 goals and 6 assists Long - 10 goals and 4 assists (Total of 32 goals and 16 assists). Overall total 59 goals and 23 assists So our strike force in 2012-14 pretty similar to Pelle, Mane and Long in 2014-16. However, Lambert and co scored more goals and more assists over the like-for-like period. Pelle never matched Lambert for goals scored: in this 2 season timeframe and overall. Jay-Rod only scored one less than Pelle over the comparable 2 seasons too. Mane scored healthfully but nothing that significantly outperformed Jay-Rod, Lallana and Long. And we’ve not even got on to Tadic! And the fact that Tadic (along with Jay-Rod and Long – who all feature above) are still playing for SFC… Mane has scored four goals this season. Redmond has scored three…

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BoondockSaint added 14:22 - Oct 25 So why didn't the Scouse just spend the 35 million on Redmond instead? Don't tell me managers preparing their teams are warning their players to make sure they watch Redmond like they do when they are preparing for Mane. Yes, there were games where he didn't score, but he stretched the field so Long could could take his 50/50 shot. Look how he has opened up the field for his new teammates-hell, Lallana looks like a man reborn! Mane's teammates have scored 16, Redmond's have scored 8.

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halftimeorange added 14:26 - Oct 25 It's partly a question of perception. When I see Mane play I think he's likely to score whenever he has the ball or, at the very least, be difficult to take it off and also draw defenders to him in numbers. I just don't feel the same about Redmond - not yet, anyway. I see him as quick but lightweight. As for Pelle, he had more of a physical presence for Saints than Austin will ever have because they are physically built differently and Pelle got battered by defenders allowing others into goalscoring positions. Charlie Austin is a poacher. You cannot compare the two.

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steve73 added 15:01 - Oct 25 Haven't you written this article once or twice before?
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vanmans added 19:03 - Oct 25 Give it a rest Nick. We all know that saints sold Two strikers in the summer and only got Redman. Austin was already here as back up to pelle not as a replacement. Most fans know saints should have bought a striker. If we had bought a good striker we would have beaten Inter Milan. We lost that game because of bad team selection to a poor Inter Milan side.
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welhamdowed added 19:18 - Oct 25 We're taking way more shots at target under Puel with Redmond/Austin than under Koeman with Mane/Pelle. Read into that what you like, but fact is Mane and Pelle are history and Redmond and Austin are the now. It's still early days under Puel so let's see where it goes.
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aceofthebase added 19:18 - Oct 25 I agree with Nick!
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IanRC added 20:12 - Oct 25 I am happy that Redmond has the potential to be a great player but I agree with the dissenters above that Mane struck fear into all the defences he faced as he had the potential to make theM look complete idiots, remember John Terry LOL. Hopefully Redmond will develop into someone with the same fear factor but he is not there yet.
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Ali_Diarea added 20:40 - Oct 25 Only twelve players scored more than Mane's 11 premier league goals last season, you talk about scoring goals like it's as easy as taking a dump. Goals win games, strikers go for a small fortune. Let's give Redmond time but let's not undervalue the achievements of both Mane and Pelle. And please change the record, so bored of reading about how wonderful outlet transfer policy is!

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