IMPRESSIVE Romeo Lavia insisted he is “trying to give back to the manager”, Ralph Hasenhuttl, for the trust he has shown the young Saints star. The 18-year-old Belgian midfielder has started all four Premier League games so far this season, following a summer move from Manchester City. Last year, Tino Livramento was seen as a freak of nature for displacing Saints regular Kyle Walker-Peters immediately in the starting lineup. Now, the young ace has done the same thing to stalwart Oriol Romeu – and based on performances alone, looks set to stay.
Romeo Lavia said: “I just came to kind of get experience and I’m getting the chance. I’m trying to give it back to the manager because he trusts me, so from my side I have to prove the manager is correct.”
Lavia’s fourth Premier League appearance ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat to his former City rivals, Manchester United. In that game, the teenager came up against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Raphael Varane – just months on from playing under-23s.
Romeo Lavia said: “I think they’ve got a lot of good players, they like to move it around in the middle and find the combinations inside. I think we managed to work against it quite well. We put pressure on them so they had to respond, it was a good battle. We were unlucky, we played well as a team defensively and offensively, just not lucky enough to get the win or take the chances. Really disappointed as a team because we know we created a lot of chances and put a lot of pressure on them. There’s a lot of positive aspects we need to take into the next game. Obviously we can’t see it as a good performance because we didn’t get the result that we wanted. But for the next game definitely a performance we can look at and learn from.”
Despite Lavia’s cool and driven persona, Saints can see the match-up as close-run and feel rather aggrieved they did not come out with a positive result. Not least because of a refereeing decision that has divided opinion again, with Andy Madley and VAR Peter Bankes choosing not to punish Scott McTominay’s handball. Speaking after the match, Hasenhuttl joked it was “not one handball, three”, but the officials did not deem it an infringement due to close-proximity.
Romeo Lavia said: “I’ve not seen the replay and honestly I don’t want to,” Lavia admitted, quizzed on the decision. It’s a decision the referee has made and we have to respect it. You’d have to tell me, I didn’t see it so I can’t say.”
