Ralph Hasenhuttl
BOSS Ralph Hasenhuttl was left pleased by what he saw from his Saints side as they swept aside Cardiff City 4-0, stating: “It was a serious performance.” In their second pre-season friendly of the summer, Saints led 1-0 at half-time against their Championship opposition thanks to a Theo Walcott finish. But Hasenhuttl’s men turned the screw in the final 25 minutes. After making seven substitutions, two of them found the net with Moussa Djenepo smashing home before a classy brace from Che Adams.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “I think it was a serious performance today. You never know against a Championship team. In the beginning you have to fight to come in the game. In the first half you could see it was not so flowing. After the first goal you could see it was a little bit better. It took a while until we had the first chances, but you have to be patient to get chances. Because you know against a good defending-deep team in the beginning, it always takes a little bit of time. This is normal. But I think the longer the game went on, the more chances we had.”
As well as Djenepo and Adams finding the net, Nathan Redmond also looked lively when he came on, while fellow sub Nathan Tella provided two assists. Asked how pleased he was by the injection of tempo from his substitutes,
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “Absolutely. The duels are big I think for every position, especially up front. But this season we maybe have five subs in the Premier League and then we need everybody here. I am happy with every player at the moment. They really trained very hard in the first three weeks (of pre-season). It was a tough first three weeks and now they seem to be fit and then the qualities of every player shines more. With all the offensive players I must say it was good today.”
