Manchester United take on Southampton at Old Trafford on Thursday night and it will be fairly straightforward from a kits point of view – the home side in their usual red shirts, white shorts and black socks, with the visitors in their yellow and navy change kit.
In 2016-17, the Saints’ presence in the Europa League meant they had to have alternative shorts for their home kit – they wore a red set away to Internazionale – but their black and grey second strip did not have any bespoke alternative items.
That meant that, for their trip to Old Trafford – a Friday night game on the second weekend of the season – they had to find something to wear other than the black default socks.
The less-than-ideal solution was to wear the red and white home socks in a 2-0 defeat.
However, another meeting with United later in the campaign would see a different kit matchup.
Having had to come up with an emergency third shirt for their game at Bournemouth, the Saints turned out in white tops with the alternative red home shorts and socks that were a reversal of the primary set. Then, after reaching the EFL Cup final against United and losing the toss for colours, they opted to wear that combination rather than the black and grey at Wembley. Unfortunately for them, that game would also in defeat, United winning 3-2.
The following season, 2017-18, Southampton’s away kit was again dominated by black, this time paired with jade, but there were change socks available for the game at United. It was another campaign with some oddities from a sartorial point of view.
