Daily Echo:

Record signing Mario Lemina could make his Saints debut just four days after joining the club as Mauricio Pellegrino today takes charge of his first Premier League game at home to Swansea.

The midfielder, who joined from Juventus on Tuesday in a deal which could rise to £18m, is fit and raring to go for today’s season opener.

Pellegrino could hand him the nod to partner Oriol Romeu in the heart of the Saints team as he looks to make a winning start.

“For me he’s a mixed midfield who has the capability, to play as a defensive midfielder or a box-to-box midfielder,” reflected Pellegrino “He has quality and strength. We didn’t have his profile of player I think.

“Physically he is good because he has been training in Juventus, but we will decide if he will be part of the team.”

There are likely to be few surprises in Pellegrino’s first line-up, as he insisted he will adjust things gradually rather than make wholesale changes.

“I don’t want to change too many things for the game,” he admitted.

“You will see more or less the same dynamic as the last few games, but I think we’re ready and I’m happy because I saw the players in a good way from the beginning.

“We are ready to start and, I repeat, it will be tough, but we have strength and possibilities to win the game.”

He added: “There is some aspect that you always can improve the dynamic of the team, the performance of the team in defence and attack.

“The question mark in this case is how will they will react in training now, because you never know how they’ll respond to the demands of the manager.

“For this reason the last three games for me were really good and we can draw some conclusions from that, but this is a process because the model of play, the idea to play is never finished. Never finished.

“Every week you have to work to improve. Sometimes you improve, sometimes no, sometimes you get worse. You never know what will happen with the team.

“For this reason when you change something you need to analyse first.”