Mark Hughes insists Saints will not necessarily stick rigidly to one formation this season after a mid-game switch helped them take control of their opening day goalless draw with Burnley.

Having spent much of this summer’s pre-season fixtures working on playing with three centre halves, it was a change to a back four, and a couple of significant substitutions, that put Saints on top against the Clarets.

Up until that point they had been second best, but after Hughes changed it Saints dominated and were unfortunate not to come away with three points.

Hughes said: “I am not rigid that I stick one formation or one way of playing. It’s always better to have the ability to change.

“If you think one way of playing isn’t working you have to have the nous first and foremost to understand what’s happening and make changes that will affect it and turn it your way.

“It’s not as if we don’t work on different formations in training. We do.

“The fact we were able to make the changes in the second half is credit to the players because they have football intelligence, are tactically astute and reacted well to the changes we made and that is always a good sign.”

Hughes felt that after a slow start Saints came away with a respectable performance and point.

“I thought we finished stronger than we started,” he reflected.

“We didn’t really get the intensity I asked for at the beginning for whatever reason. Maybe it was apprehension with a new season and going up against good opposition who will test you.

“We didn’t really get our pressing in terms of winning the ball back because without that intensity we were maybe erring on the side of just trying to get back in positions rather than trying to affect the opposition. That meant they had more control of the game than I felt they should of done given they were the away team.

“It might be the fact they are a bit ahead of us in terms of competitive minutes and that showed in the initial period.

“I left it for five minutes in the second half after speaking to them and saying we had to be on the front foot more. I didn’t see that really happening so made a personnel change and a change in formation and that helped us.

“From that point on we were in total control and created chances.

“The only worry from our point of view is that we had to be attentive and concentrate because you know Burnley will always work on percentages and if they get the ball in good areas and into your box they can convert a chance they create in a game.

“We had to be nice and solid towards the end of the game, finished stronger than the opposition and dictated to them.

“For a first game against opposition a little bit ahead of us I think it was a decent performance.”