We profile Watford's opponents on Sunday, Southampton

After losing head coach Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham Hotspur, as well as Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Dejan Lovren, the Saints belied pre-season expectations to secure a Europa League qualifying place.

It has been another summer of change for Ronald Koeman with Morgan Schneiderlin joining Manchester United in a £25 million deal and Nathaniel Clyne treading the well-beaten track to Liverpool a year after messrs Lambert, Lallana and Lovren.

Seven players have also arrived at the South Coast club as Dutch legend Koeman seeks to a bolster a squad which is now 90 minutes from the reaching the group stages of the Europa League following a 5-0 aggregate win over Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem in the penultimate qualifying round.

Such is the success of the last 12 months that Sadio Mane and Victor Wanyama are the latest to be linked with moves away from the club after both enjoying stellar 2014/15 campaigns.

Danish champions FC Midtjylland stand between the Saints and the group stages of the Europa League. The club’s last foray in Europe came in 2003/04 and a 1-1 first leg draw at St Mary’s Stadium on Thursday set up a finely-poised return leg next week.

Southampton Academy graduate Tim Sparv, who has been capped for Finland and won last season’s Danish Superliga title since leaving England in 2006, got the opener on the stroke of half-time.

England international Jay Rodriguez dragged Southampton level from the penalty spot in the second half by scoring his first goal since March 2014 following a tortuous spell on the sidelines with knee ligament damage.

Jay Rodriguez celebrates his first goal since returning from a long injury lay-off. Picture: Action Images

With the added strains of Europe to contend with it has been a busy transfer window for Koeman.

Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg has joined on loan from Fulham as cover for long-term absentee Fraser Forster, whilst Steven Caulker has also moved on loan from Queens Park Rangers. Further defensive additions have been made in Cedric Soares (Sporting Lisbon) and Cuco Martina (FC Twente).

The Netherlands has proved a happy hunting ground for Koeman since his appointment last summer and the former Ajax and PSV Eindhoven boss made ex-Feyenoord captain Jordy Clasie his highest-profile addition of the summer, signed from the Dutch side for £8 million.

The midfielder has 12 full caps for the Oranje and arrives at St Mary’s after 15 years with De club aan de Maas during which he made 155 appearances in all competitions and scored eight times.

Feyenoord were twice league runners-up during Clasie’s time with the club and the 24-year-old will only have to look at new teammate Graziano Pelle for an example of a successful transition from the Netherlands.

The Italian striker switched from Feyenoord last summer and hit it off immediately on the South Coast by finishing as the club’s top scorer with 16 goals during his maiden campaign.

Pelle hit eight in his first 12 games last year and the Italian international has already netted three times in his first four outings this season, with two of those goals coming in the destruction of Vitesse.

A goal against England in a friendly in March was Pelle’s second for the Azzurri after scoring on his debut in a 1-0 win against Malta in October.

Remarkably, Pelle had not scored ten goals in a league season since the 2006/07 campaign with Cesena before achieving the feat in consecutive years with Feyenoord and Southampton.

Indeed, after bouncing around Italy in his youth, the strapping striker had only hit double figures for two clubs - Cesena and AZ Alkmaar - before discovering the goalscoring touch whilst on loan with Feyenoord during the 2012/13 season.

The £5 million arrival of forward Juanmi from Malaga should go some way to easing the goalscoring burden on Pelle, whose form faded in the new year and he only mustered six goals from January.

However, the 22-year-old arrives with a modest goalscoring record - 18 league goals in 57 starts in Spain - but no little potential after winning the Under-19 European Championships with Spain in 2011 and 2011.

Graziano Pelle in action for the Saints against Everton last Saturday. Picture: Action Images

He made his full debut for La Roja in a friendly against the Netherlands at the Amsterdam ArenA in March.

Although Southampton edge the overall record between the two sides with 19 wins to 17, the Hornets have only lost twice to the Hampshire outfit in the last eight league meetings with both losses coming during Sean Dyche’s solitary season at the helm.

Prior to that the last time the Saints held the upper hand over the Hornets in the league was in the then Premiership in 2000.

A 2-0 loss at The Dell was inflicted thanks to goals from Marian Pahars and Kevin Davies after the Golden Boys had prevailed 3-2 at Vicarage Road after a memorable brace from mercurial French striker Xavier Gravelaine, the forward scoring his only two goals for the club that evening.

Southampton XI v Midtjylland (20.08.15): Stekelenburg; Yoshida, Fonte (c), Caulker, Targett; Wanyama, Romeu; Mane, Ward-Prowse, Rodriguez; Pelle.