After a stagnant start under Mark Hughes that left them in the relegation zone, looking doomed for a return to the second tier, Southampton opted to replace the Welshman with Ralph Hasenhuttl.
The former RB Leipzig manager had a high reputation in Germany, with few bad spots on his CV. His doubters thought that his high-intensity football may struggle to translate as Southampton lacked pace and were used to the slow-paced football of both Claude Puel and Hughes.
The doubters were wrong.
Hasenhuttl maximised a squad that fitted together awkwardly and Southampton took 30 points from thier 23 games under him, comfortably beating the drop. Wins over Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal all came in that impressive run.
Saints used a variety of formations, and though the shape of the attackers is important to any system, what was more notable under Hasenhuttl was the number of defenders on the pitch. He played five at the back often and on these occasions, his team showed the ability to either play with two fixed strikers and three central players or two central players and three forwards.
Part of Hasenhuttl’s task was finding any systems that worked. He was inheriting a team that had displayed minimal tactical intelligence under Hughes. The Welshman made his name as a motivator and team-builder at Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City but as the Premier League saw an influx of more modern tacticians, Hughes was left behind.
Southampton were passive off the ball, lacking structure regardless of whether they decided to press or sit deep. Hasenhuttl not only had to fight a relegation battle, but he had to tactically invigorate a team that had no distinctive style. It is for this reason that I would not take too much from the systems he used last year. He had to find something that worked – the key feature for Southampton was the distinctive style he implemented.
So what was this style?
Well, Ralph Hasenhuttl promotes a high-intensity approach based on verticality. This method encourages players to make forward passes over sideways passes in order to break the lines. Possession is not a necessity in the slightest for a Hasenhuttl team. Sometimes, the game script means that his side will end up controlling the ball, such as in the matches against Cardiff City and Newcastle United. On the whole, though, Southampton were not a possession-based team under him, averaging just 45.6% possession. In their wins, Southampton averaged just 34% possession.
He likes his attacking players to bunch up in central positions, so when the ball travels forward from the centre-backs, there are quick options for combination plays which allow the team to move in behind. The narrow cluster of his attacking players places a lot of emphasis on the full-backs. They are required to cover a lot of ground. Regardless of whether the Austrian opts for a back four or a back three, his full-backs always play very high.
At their most extreme, Hasenhuttl’s full-backs will make stretching runs in behind. His central midfielders will then move into wide areas to potentially get on the end of any knockdowns.
Essentially, his teams are direct, but people need to understand this does not mean they’re a long ball team. It’s not hit and hope, he just doesn’t believe in making tonnes of short passes to create good chances.
Even if his teams are passing it around the back, they are waiting for the forward players to align in such a way that one pass into an attacker can lead to further passes. Essentially, the purpose of possession at the back is to bide time to allow the forward players to position themselves correctly before unleashing an attack at warp speed. The runs from the full-backs are key to this working as they pin the defence back and create space between the lines. Nathan Redmond was particularly effective at doing this, as evidenced by his goal against Burnley in February.
Southampton recovered a clearance and built up in a diamond shape with the three defenders and Oriol Romeu. The purpose of the diamond shape is so that Romeu can play a one-two to advance one of the three centre-backs forward and create a transition. It also, obviously, gives enough defensive cover to track runners and to come out and meet trailing runners.
The two wing-backs are very high, and there are two runners stretching Burnley in behind. Southampton scored this goal with just one pass made in the Burnley half. Burnley’s midfield is split open as they expect Jan Bednarek to pass it to the wing-back. Bednarek then plays an excellent breaking the lines pass. Redmond had dropped deep into a good position and when he received the ball, there were four runners ahead of him who had pinned the defence back. This was an effective way to generate space against a team like Burnley, who like to sit deep.
This is peak Hasenhuttl football. He uses direct runners to pin teams back and the ball will not travel forward until most players are in a position to make an impact in the final third.
He has been called the Anti-Pep Guardiola by some and this name seems rather fitting. While Pep believes in controlling possession to maximise the creation of goalscoring opportunities, Hasenhuttl believes that what you do with the possession is key. Ideally, he wants to open up a team with a run from deep in one pass. In pre-season, Southampton have been continuing with the attempts to open teams up without necessarily controlling the ball for long spells.
In their first friendly, against a middling Austrian club in SCR Altach, Southampton averaged just 44% possession. They played a 4-2-2-2 formation in the first half with Che Adams and Shane Long upfront. They both looked to run in behind with the Irishman particularly keen to pull into the left channel. At times, Southampton’s front four would be narrow, trying to overload the two centre-backs. This put a lot of emphasis on the distribution of full-backs Yan Valery and Ryan Bertrand.
There was one very telling moment in the first-half, after 11 minutes. Southampton had maneuvered the ball into a wide area to Valery. Their front four had drawn the back four up and into a narrow grouping. Valery would have been able to hit Long in behind if he’d played the ball first time, but he took too many touches, which meant the forward was offside.
Hasenhuttl’s frustration was caught by the cameras and he essentially told Valery to play the ball forward quicker. This small interaction summarises the manager’s philosophy. Many teams would be happy with their players taking extra touches to find the right pass. Ralph wants his teams to hit it the ball in behind to runners quickly. Long did not wait and hold his run because that is not the philosophy, so whilst he was caught offside, he was doing what he was supposed to do.
By design in the system, Valery should have played the ball first time as the run was made by Long. The intensity and the speed of these runs often catch teams off guard. They try to combat this by dropping off so they don’t get caught in behind on the halfway line. As you saw with Redmond’s goal against Burnley, Southampton can combat this by dropping their good attacking players between the lines and then stretching the defence with direct runs from the wing-backs.
Regardless of whether Southampton play with a back four or a back three, the principles are the same. Take the quick passes in behind as option one. If teams drop off, they try and use direct transitions down the wing to pin teams back, thus, creating spaces between the lines.
Part of the point of the high full-backs is to create ‘spacing’. This is most known as a concept in basketball rather than football, but this should change in the future.
Spacing is essentially covering big chunks of the pitch and being able to stretch teams. This is especially important for Southampton because their forward players generally bunch up quite close to each other. Saints space teams internally because of this; they drag teams in and the positioning of the wing-backs is essential for making sure the entire system doesn’t become hugely clogged up in the middle. It essentially gives security to a system with a very ambitious setup. This concept of spacing is perhaps best illustrated by their pass-map in the win over Tottenham back in March.
You can see this spacing in action in the clip below. Redmond receives the ball on the half-turn, brushes off the defender and switches the ball to Valery who is in acres of space.
YouTube: Southampton Switch of Play vs Huddersfield on final day
You can also see how the presence of multiple direct runners pins the defence back, and how the flooding of players into one area creates space on the flanks.
Southampton also use the wing-backs to initiate combination plays. One of the issues teams who play 3-5-2 face is that the formation can become rigid and stagnant because there are no number tens or wingers on the pitch.
The wing-backs combining and having constant options available to them are key to Southampton making sure this doesn’t happen. As you can see in the picture below, there are multiple options available for Valery.
Saints use a variety of formations, but a few of the core principles are the same regardless. There is an emphasis on verticality. The team presses in bursts and the full-backs push very high up to accommodate and support the midfielders and attackers who generally flood one area. The option for a switch of play is pivotal for this system working.
Hasenhuttl’s formations last year were not hugely relevant because he was just trying to build around the players he inherited and they will likely change this year.
He’ll have had a full pre-season with his players and his style and core philosophies are somewhat implemented. In his first press conference, the Austrian told reporters that his core formations would be ‘4-2-2-2, 3-4-3 and 4-3-3’. The 4-2-2-2 is likely going to be the preferred setup for Southampton this year.
In Redmond, Che Adams and Danny Ings, Saints have three players capable of playing on a front line. Ings is technically brilliant so he will drop between the lines. Redmond was excellent roaming around, and he showed the ability to lead the line with his movement and dribbling ability.
James Ward-Prowse seems a great fit to bring balance to this formation in a ‘wide’ position. If Southampton are starting a more attacking-oriented winger on the left-hand side, such as Redmond or Moussa Djenepo, it makes sense to have Ward-Prowse over on the right-hand side. He demonstrated good chemistry with Valery and he has the ability to play centrally.
I’m not sure he has the positioning to play in a two-man midfield and it’s wasting his passing talent to just dump him in a deep role, so playing as the de-facto third midfielder in Hasenhuttl’s 4-2-2-2 system might be good for him.
He’s a terrific crosser from the half-spaces and he could weight passes to Valery on the overlap. Ward-Prowse’s positional versatility on the pitch allows Hasenhuttl to mix up his shapes and still maintain the same central dominance; he is arguably the most important tactical chip they have.
Until Hasenhuttl moved Redmond to a central role, Southampton lacked pace upfront. Their second signing should change this. Adams had a terrific season in a pretty ordinary Birmingham City team, and his loss will be felt in multiple ways.
Birmingham’s system was strange last year. They played a 4-4-2 in every game, but it was a very direct system. Only Rotherham United attempted fewer short passes per game, and the Blues were 23rd in percentage of their attempts going long. This was a team on a shoestring budget and Garry Monk built them as an intense off-the-ball team that was direct in position. Adams played as a roaming striker alongside target man Lukas Jutkiewicz.
Adams is a direct runner who gives Southampton a legitimate 15-goal-a-season threat upfront. He performed well in a direct system in Birmingham so he has some experience of having to run in behind onto balls over the top.
Southampton will likely keep the ball on the grass a little bit more than Birmingham did, but he is a great fit in a variety of formations. His ability to drop deep and link up play opens up the possibility of him playing as an inside forward in a 3-4-3 or a 4-3-3.
Even when Hasenhuttl plays these formations, the ‘wide’ players will sit quite narrow and overload the centre. Adams was good at one-touch passing and showed good awareness to get his head up and roll the ball to the overlapping full-back for Birmingham. He’s an unselfish runner too, as you can see below. He drags the centre-backs backwards and across which gives Jacques Maghoma a brief window to shift the ball and shoot.
YouTube: Che Adams Decoy Run vs Rotherham United
Adams is also not afraid to get ‘stuck in’. The other part of Hasenhuttl’s system is aggressive pressing and Adams suits this well as he won a fair number of his defensive duels with Birmingham.
Southampton were seventh in ‘challenge intensity’ last year, per Wyscout. This is the name for ‘duels, tackles and interceptions per minute of opponent possession’. Southampton shot up these rankings after Hughes was sacked. Adams fits high-intensity football on both sides of the ball due to his direct running and his desire to press from the front. He has great positional sense, and a big season should be predicted from the forward.
Southampton aren’t being talked about enough. They collected 30 points from Hasenhuttl’s 23 league games in charge. Over the course of the season, that would have been good for 50 points, which would have put them level with Watford in 11th place. This is seriously impressive and underrated.
Hasenhuttl achieved this despite having a poor squad that lacked pace and intensity. He also achieved this while having to turn a team from one content on sitting deep and soaking up the pressure to one that pressed higher up the pitch and played with more purpose.
Hasenhuttl worked miracles and he should allow Southampton to have a serious push for a top-seven finish this year.
The thing in Southampton’s favour is that their style will be the antithesis to some of the bigger teams. For teams that want to keep possession, facing a team that tries to disrupt your build-up then hit you in behind quickly might be unsettling.
Now is the time to buy Southampton stock before they get really good because they will be really good sooner rather than later.
