(יד) וַיִּפֶן אֵלָיו יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר לֵךְ בְּכֹחֲךָ זֶה וְהוֹשַׁעְתָּ אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִכַּף מִדְיָן הֲלֹא שְׁלַחְתִּיךָ. (טו) וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו בִּי אֲדֹנָי בַּמָּה אוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל הִנֵּה אַלְפִּי הַדַּל בִּמְנַשֶּׁה וְאָנֹכִי הַצָּעִיר בְּבֵית אָבִי.
This first aroused my attention to a connection between the rulers. Both Shaul and Gidon respond to a compliment by citing their low social status, which in their eyes disqualifies them from the honor being bestowed upon them.
Let's look deeper for more similarities.
In the list of his genealogy, we see that Shaul's grandson has an almost identical name to Gidon. This is most probably a way of emulating the shofet.
Here is another common point between Gidon and Shaul: both of the leaders try to take command of a military situation where the people are hiding in remote areas out of fear of the enemy, a phenomenon unique to these verses.
In both cases, it appears that the leader will receive wine, but does not. Instead, he gets a wheat product, and just as the bread/flour is acquired, their revelation begins.
Additional Shoftim hints are hidden in the following pasuk, with Tavor and Beit El as parallels of Devorah.
The question I'll leave you with is such: Are we connecting Gidon to Shaul, or Shaul to Gidon? In other words, are we adding credibility to Shaul or taking it away from Gidon? Or are we doing both?