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This article is part of Football FanCast's In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets...

Jannik Vestergaard. A powerhouse of a man at 6 foot 6, but a player who has been criticised heavily by the Southampton fans on Twitter and also by us after his performance against Liverpool.

The Dane hasn't really set the south coast alight since his £18m move from Borussia Monchengladbach last summer, making 23 Premier League appearances last season and not being the most effective centre-back as previously mentioned above.

Last time out, the 27-year-old shone against Manchester United as the Saints managed to grab a 1-1 draw, despite having 10-men for almost the last 20 minutes of the game.

As well as notching his first goal for the club with a header, Vestergaard delivered a dominant performance at the back against nippy forwards such as Dan James and Marcus Rashford - he was an absolute colossus at the back.

Having been quite poor for the majority of his first season at St Mary's, you could say that the lanky centre-back's showing against the Red Devils was a real coming of age performance as he proved himself up against one of the league's big-hitters.

Vestergaard made four clearances and completed a whopping five interceptions against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side.

He also managed to make two blocks on a day where United found it difficult to get past Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek at the back.

Having criticised him for his performance against Liverpool, a lot of Southampton fans will presumably be delighted to see the powerful Dane turn things around just two league games later, and the only thing that should concern them is the thought of Vestergaard not building on this performance.

With that said, performing so efficiently against United bodes well for his chances of playing well against smaller sides, so the Saints should have every hope of their £18m investment coming good after this coming of age performance.

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