Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has issued a defiant message over the Saints’ prospects of turning around their form and getting their season back on track, with him believing the experience from the past few years in charge will be enough to trigger a response.
The Saints are currently enduring their most problematic period on and off the field since the Austrian took charge of the club in December 2018. Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Wolves made it six successive losses in the Premier League, the longest run of league defeats in the club’s history.
Hasenhuttl is facing the difficult challenge of trying to get his players back to their best and picking up results like they were at the start of the campaign. Southampton went top after beating Newcastle little over three months ago but now sit in 13th, just four points ahead of the 17th-placed Magpies. Injuries to the likes of Kyle Walker-Peters and Ibrahima Diallo in particular have put further strain on the squad.
Speaking to the Southern Daily Echo, Hasenhuttl insisted that he believes he has the tools and the experience needed to turn things around as he approaches his 100th game in charge of the Saints, also stressing his unwavering belief in his squad by saying:
You learn a lot about your game, and you learn a lot about your players. When you are two years together, and I think especially this group, we are working together. We went through all the weathers, and all the sunshine in these two years, there was everything included.
Position one in the table and I think the last position we also had. So we know everything – players in the stands, players in the first XI, a manager flying high, a manager really low because of no energy. We had everything.
This commits us in a very special way and helps us hopefully in such moments to find a way out.
On his belief in the squad to turn things around with the squad he has at Southampton, Hasenhuttl added: “Sure, this is my group.”
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Southampton in this moment need Hasenhuttl to come out and offer a defiant message like this one, with the Saints’ confidence having been massively impacted over the last few weeks with results on the field. There was a reaction in terms of performance level against Wolves in the first half, but they now need to sustain that standard for a full match.
The Saints are not in any immediate danger of relegation, but with teams below them picking up some momentum, they must start to put points on the board once again. Hasenhuttl managed to get this same group of players into the top six on a consistent basis at the start of the campaign, so it is no surprise that he is confident they can turn things around.
The Austrian does not seem to be in any immediate danger of the sack, but the longer this losing run continues, the more pressure will inevitably fall on his shoulders. As he suggests, he has the experience of the last two years to draw upon and the know-how of accumulating results in the Premier League. He now needs to once again prove that on the field.
