Three of Saints’ star performers from last season are preparing to take on Real Madrid in the Champions League tonight – but it is debatable whether any of them would get back in their old side.

Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovren all completed summer moves to Liverpool, who are hosting the kings of Europe at Anfield this evening.

It is the sort of ‘bigger and better’ occasion that the trio left to pursue, but, back at Saints, their departures have certainly not led to the disaster that many feared.

In fact, they would all probably be hard pushed to get a place in Ronald Koeman’s starting XI right now.

That is down to the effectiveness of their successors, with the early signs suggesting that Saints have not just replaced Lallana, Lambert and Lovren, but that they might have upgraded on them.

Even Lallana, who deservedly won a clean sweep of player-of-the-season awards at the club last season, is being statistically outperformed by his replacement, Dusan Tadic.

Tadic’s seven assists in the Premier League this season completely eclipse Lallana, who is yet to provide one this term, while it is already two more than he produced for Saints in the whole of the 2013/14 campaign.

Tadic is creating, on average, 2.5 chances per game, which is well in excess of Lallana’s total of 1.2 this season and 1.9 the year before.

Both players have one goal each, although Tadic, who netted his first league strike in the 8-0 demolition of Sunderland, has some way to go to reach the nine that Lallana scored last term.

He has the potential to do it, though.

Last season, for FC Twente, he scored 16 times in the Dutch top flight, while he also created a phenomenal 133 chances in 33 appearances.

To put that into some context, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was the leading Premier League player in that category last term – with 85.

Up front, Pelle had big shoes to fill following his arrival from Feyenoord.

Lambert was a hugely influential presence for Saints, but the 29-year-old Italian has looked every bit as good – if not better – than the man he has replaced.

Certainly, there is no comparison between them this season.

Lambert, a bit part player at Liverpool, is yet to score or provide an assist.

Pelle, by contrast, has netted six times in the Premier League and laid on one goal.

The Italian international, who scored 55 times in two years for Feyenoord, looks set to surpass Lambert’s 13-goal total from last season, and is on course to beat the 15 he managed the year before that, although he’ll have to work to better his ten assists from last season.

Nathaniel Clyne has been thrilled with what he has seen from new teammates Tadic and Pelle so far.

“They’ve both come in and done really well. If you look at Pelle’s stats before he came, he scores a lot of goals,” he said.

“He’s adapted now to the Premier League and scoring goals as well.

“With Tadic, he’s getting assists and doing really well for the team.”

Clyne added: “We’ve recruited well. The players we have brought in have suited the team. I think we look like a stronger team now than we were last season.”

At the back, Lovren has appeared to struggle at his new club.

His stats are not dissimilar to last season, and are comparable to his Saints replacement Toby Alderweireld, but the Belgian international has certainly looked more assured.

With Liverpool’s average goals conceded having jumped from 1.32 per Premier League game last season to 1.50 this term, the Croatian has clearly not had the impact hoped at Anfield as yet.

Lovren will have his work cut out for him tonight, as Liverpool face Europe’s top scorers, with Real having netted 30 goals in eight league games.

Cristiano Ronaldo has 15 of those, including three hat-tricks, while he has converted 19 times in total and is currently riding a nine-game scoring streak.

They look likely to avoid ex-Saint Gareth Bale, who has four goals in seven La Liga appearances, but is expected to miss out with a thigh injury, although £63m signing James Rodriguez is likely to be deployed.