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Jan Bednarek once again started in the Southampton defence for the brilliant 3-2 win against Arsenal at St Mary’s on Sunday, as he continues to turn his season around.
The Poland international had found first-team minutes this term hard to come by under Ralph Hasenhuttl’s predecessor Mark Hughes after only featuring for 80 minutes in the Premier League, but he beat that total after playing the entirety of the 1-0 defeat against Cardiff City earlier this month.
Despite the loss, the 22-year-old impressed at the heart of the backline and was once again given the nod by his Austrian manager for the visit of the Gunners to the south coast at the weekend, lining up on a the right side of a three-man defence with Matt Targett and Yan Valery playing as wing-backs.
Coming up against an attack including players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Iwobi it seemed as though Bednarek would be in for a difficult afternoon, but he read the game well and was generally brilliant throughout – as were many of his teammates.
The young centre-back may have been caught out of position for the first goal having tried to press and win the ball high up the pitch – perhaps something he was asked to do by Hasenhuttl considering his centre-back partners Maya Yoshida and Jannik Vestergaard also did the same – he also made some goal-saving interceptions such as the one where Aubameyang looked set for a simple tap-in from six yards out.
The 22-year-old outshone his more senior defenders by winning two tackles as well as making four interceptions and seven clearances, according to WhoScored, while he also blocked two efforts at goal from the visitors.
Bednarek also used the ball better than Yoshida and Vestergaard with a passing accuracy of 87%, 11.2% higher than the Japan international’s and 14% more than the Dane’s.
The Poland star may not have got much of a look in under Hughes previously this season, but he is already proving that he can be a huge success story with Hasenhuttl, and while Virgil van Dijk may have been a one-off, his ex-teammate certainly has all of the attributes and the time on his side to be Southampton’s next version of the Dutchman.