Ralph Hasenhuttl said he would leave it to others to decide how much of an impact Saints’ lengthy list of absentees had against Arsenal on Tuesday night
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “If we have more injuries, it definitely hurts us more than the top teams.”
Saints took the lead against Arsenal through Stuart Armstrong in the third minute, only to lose 3-1 and slide into the bottom half of the Premier League table. Asked how much of an impact those absentees had on the game against the Gunners, boss Hasenhuttl said:
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “Everyone can decide for themselves or look for themselves how much it decided the game. We conceded two very easy goals in the first half. We had chances to score and the effort was good from everybody. The quality was not good enough to be competitive against this team. He added: “We are definitely running out of players at the moment. I hope that a few are coming back. But at the moment it is like it is and this is the situation. It is not nice, definitely not, but it is like it is and that’s the reason why we shouldn’t be too negative. We have 29 points. This is a good thing. We knew that such a situation can come for us. If we have more injuries, it definitely hurts us more than the top teams because they have more alternatives in the second line that we don’t have. We have a few young players, they must learn a lot and we don’t have everybody on a level to compete immediately in the Premier League. This is nothing new. We know this.”
Since defeating Sheffield United 3-0 on December 13, a victory which lifted Saints into the top four, Hasenhuttl’s side have registered just one league victory in their seven subsequent matches.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “The one win was against Liverpool, so we’ll take this,” said Hasenhuttl. We know that we are a good team when everything is perfect and we are in a good shape. I’m sure we will play better next weekend.”
