New Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was pleased with his side’s performance despite their 1-0 loss to Cardiff City on Saturday, Football 365 reports.
Cardiff’s Callum Paterson latched onto a Jannik Vestergaard error to gift Cardiff all three points from their relegation rivals.
Hasenhuttl was only appointed Saints manager on Thursday, giving him just two days with his squad before his opening match.
Hasenhuttl took over from Mark Hughes following his sacking last week and has previous managerial experience with Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.
Southampton sit three points from safety and are only denied being bottom of the Premier League table by Fulham’s inferior goal difference.
Hasenhuttl gave his thoughts on his team’s performance after the match:
I was not disappointed with what my team showed me.
The mentality was OK and the team is trying to get out of this situation.
They have to believe in what we’re doing and I saw that they did it for a very long time.
We had two days good training, but it probably wasn’t enough.
Even though it is a very difficult situation for the whole club, I am not afraid of the challenge of doing better than we did here.
Prior to the Austrian’s appointment, the Saints had won just one league game all season under Hughes.
