Southampton’s Player of the Month Oriol Romeu lauds amazing runner-up Sam McQueen

Follow us on Google Discover

It has been quite the month for Sam McQueen, with only the in-form Romeu preventing him being named the club’s finest performer in October.

Southampton midfielder Oriol Romeu has paid tribute to the ‘amazing’ emergence of young teammate Sam McQueen, after pipping him to the Saints Player of the Month award, as reported by the club’s official website.

Romeu topped the fans poll to lift the gong for the second month running, edging out McQueen as well as Virgil Van Dijk and Nathan Redmond after a series of combative performances in front of the defence in October, particularly as Claude Puel’s side ground out draws away at Manchester City and Champions Leicester.

However, the Spanish enforcer has lauded the displays of academy graduate McQueen, who was rushed in to the senior team in an unfamiliar left-back role due to injuries to Ryan Bertrand and then Matt Targett, his willing overlaps and dangerous crosses earning admiration from the St Mary’s faithful.

“He’s done very well,” said Romeu of the 21-year-old to Southampton’s official website. “He’s been amazing for us. He has handled the pressure extremely well, because it’s not easy when you are starting to play in the first-team and he has done very good.

“I am just very happy for him, because we have seen him training hard since the beginning of the season and now he has got his chance he has taken it and he is doing very well.

“Hopefully he can play some more amazing games and we are going to help him out, of course.”

McQueen impressed on his Premier League debut against Burnley to such a degree that Puel handed him the opportunity to go head-to-head with Italian international Antonio Candreva against Inter Milan in the Europa League just four days later.

And, although the return of Bertrand from a few weeks on the sidelines looks set to limit McQueen’s game time for the foreseeable future, he has shown more than enough quality to suggest he can follow the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw from the academy to the senior set-up.