MAYA Yoshida believes there are many similarities between Mauricio Pellegrino and one of his Saints predecessors, Mauricio Pochettino.

Having been at the club for five years, Yoshida has now worked under five different Saints bosses and reckons Pellegrino has the same attributes as the now Tottenham boss.

Pochettino was a widely popular manager at St Mary’s, leading Saints to an eighth place finish in the Premier League in his only full season, when he had his team playing a brand of exciting attacking football.

“Compared to last season you can immediately see we are more aggressive,” said Yoshida, when asked about Pellegrino’s style.

“We are more attacking. Last season we were defensively organised but a little bit too defensive.

“But we are trying to dominate games this season and most of the time control the game. Maybe we didn’t do that today [against Huddersfield] but in general that’s what we want in the Premier League.

“He has a good philosophy and we have to understand what we need to do and the training sessions are also really hard, but I had an experience under Pochettino which was similar and I’m sure if he continues like this we can develop.”

The 29-year-old explained why Pellegrino compares to his fellow Argentine.

“They both like to play football,” he said. “They like to press high and be aggressive.

“We have to fight for that. Our training sessions are really hard and similar [to Pochettino].

“Under Pochettino many players fly to another level and we need to take this opportunity to learn from that and have a good example to learn form. So why don’t we take this opportunity to improve ourselves?”

Having just penned a new three year contract at St Mary’s, the 29-year-old centre-back is ready to continue fighting for his place in the team.

Saints have signed Lazio centre-back Wesley Hoedt for £15m and also signed Jan Bednarek for £5m earlier in the window, so are well stocked at the back.

Virgil van Dijk could also return to the Saints fold too, so there’s certainly competition at central defence.

“I have no reason to leave the club,” said Yoshida. “I have been here for better or for worse in the last five years and still I have to fight for my position because two days before I signed my new contract they got another centre back.

“At this level in the Premier League everywhere you have the competition between the players, especially between Southampton centre-backs competition is very high.

“ But the competition makes us very strong. I have learned the last couple of years so I really welcome this kind of competitiveness between the players.

“I want to show my ability and character to the fans, the club and the manager.”