ORIOL Romeu admitted it will be “important” for Saints to add more players to their squad ahead of next month’s transfer deadline.

Saints are still seeking their first point of the Premier League campaign having lost to both Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as exiting the Carabao Cup at the first hurdle with defeat to Brentford.

The Spaniard has started all three of those matches and is one of just three recognised central midfielders in the squad, alongside captain James Ward-Prowse and youngster Will Smallbone.

Boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has made no secret of his desire to sign a new player in that area of the pitch, to replace Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who departed in the summer to join Spurs. Fellow midfielders Harrison Reed and Mario Lemina have also been let go, both moving to Fulham.

Saints have spent almost £23million on transfers this summer, signing defensive duo Kyle Walker-Peters and Mohammed Salisu. And Romeu believes some more new faces would be of benefit to the squad.

He told the Daily Echo: “It’s going to be important I think. The more potential we have in the squad, the better we will feel, the more options the manager will have to play and there will be more competition.

“It’s going to help the team, it’s going to make us better and whoever they can bring in that can help us and make us better is good for us.”

Romeu arrived at Saints from Chelsea for around £4million as a promising 23-year-old in 2015, looking to really stamp his mark on a club after two seasons out on loan following a bit-part role with the Blues.

Fast forward five years and 192 games later and Romeu, who turns 29 tomorrow, is one of the more experienced members at Saints. Just two outfield players - Ryan Bertrand and Shane Long - are older than Romeu amongst Hasenhuttl’s squad.

Asked if his experience is even more important to a young squad during difficult runs when results are not easy to come by, Romeu said: “Players that have been here longer, I think we need to show that it’s not the end of the world, losing one game.

“It’s something like a message and then you need to react and do something different and make it better for the next challenge.

“It’s been two games with no points, but we can still improve and do a lot of things better. The feeling is it’s too far away from what we want to do, we just need to keep creating chances and concede less to be in a better position to win games.”

Quizzed on the mood at the club in the past week following the 5-2 humbling by Tottenham, Romeu added: “It’s probably I would say encouraging, because we want to change things around, improve that bad feeling we had in those past two or three matches.

“Tottenham was a disappointing loss, but there were some good things to take from there.

“I think I would say even more than Palace, because the first half was very good and we competed very well against a tough side.

“Those habits and those things we did well, being solid and creating chances and being offensive, it’s something that is going to probably help us over the next games and we need to keep doing that for a longer period, not just for one half as sometimes happens.”