SAINTS manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said it is “understandable” that Adam Armstrong could knock on his door and ask for increased gametime.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “I have a feeling that nobody is happy when you are not playing, this is normal – nobody should be happy when he is not playing. He should be looking to come into the team as quick as possible because everyone wants to play, and it is up to me to find the right players to do so. I have conversations with every player and one fact is also that our last striker goal was in the FA Cup versus West Ham. So there is definitely argument for him to say now ‘I have my qualities, I want to show up’ and this is understandable.”
Ralph Hasenhuttl continued: “I think the first year for a Championship striker, coming from there, in the Premier League is always a tough one. He has shown the qualities he has and in the end, yeah, at that time of the year two strikers in (Armando) Broja and Che Adams who have six and seven goals so there are some arguments for them. He has two, against Everton and Aston Villa he scored. Form is sometimes more important than quality and it is okay to ask for more gametime in those moments, he is a different kind of striker.”
Hasenhuttl went on to reveal that his selection process is not all about the output at the top end of the pitch, but their usefulness in defence of set-pieces too. Armstrong has the disadvantage, in this area, of standing at just five-foot eight-inches tall. Broja is six-foot three-inches and Adams, a little shorter, is five-foot 10-inches but has more aerial prowess. This will play a role in choosing Hasenhuttl’s XI for the trip to Brentford this weekend.
Ralph hasenhuttl said: “We have in the moment a little bit of issues with height, especially against a team like Brentford. They are very strong working with set-pieces. To pick then a striker who is not defending like Broja or Che Adams is a tough decision to take. You only see what happens up front on the pitch but you don’t ask Dave Watson what he thinks when I pick two strikers who are not six foot high. I don’t want to explain my decision making but this nobody sees, you have to take always a balance.”
