Sofiane Boufal has revealed that a tactical tweak from Ralph Hasenhuttl at half-time provided Southampton with the edge to defeat Fulham 1-0 on Tuesday.

Saints progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup courtesy of a goal from Michael Obafemi after the break.

Before the interval, Fulham had enjoyed the better share of both chances and the possession, with Bobby Reid coming closest for the hosts.

However, Hasenhuttl’s instruction for Southampton to play with greater aggression and press more intensely, as per Boufal, pushed them on to victory.

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As quoted by the club’s official website, the Moroccan explained the adjustments that the boss made. He said:

[Hasenhuttl told Saints] to be more aggressive and press higher when we don’t have the ball. We feel we can do something when we press high. We recovered a lot of balls in this part of the pitch and we were very dangerous. We could’ve scored more goals.

It was a very difficult win against a very good opponent, but the most important is the qualification. We were very good without the ball, we pressed well and we scored a beautiful goal from Mikey with good work from Nathan.

Read Southampton’s verdict

Saints are at their best when they press intensely and in numbers. The first half at Fulham was far too laboured, but the second-half showing will provide plenty of encouragement.

In truth, we should have had four or five goals after the break. Danny Ings missed a few presentable openings, and Shane Long should have done better with a clear chance. Oriol Romeu also had a gilt-edged opportunity to open the scoring before Obafemi did so.

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Saints need to ensure that they start games quickly. Putting the opponent on the front foot early on always stands us in good stead for the rest of the game, and against better opposition on Tuesday, we could have been punished for our languid first-half display.

Maintaining an intense, organised press with aggressive chasing while out of possession needs to be a fundamental principle of our play. We have seen that we’re capable of giving good teams serious problems when we are at our best, and hunting in packs must occur not only in second halves but throughout full matches.

Did Southampton deserve to beat Fulham?

Yes

No