The result at St Mary’s lifts Saints off the bottom of the Premier League for the first time this season with two wins in the last three league contests. It was the first clean sheet at home this campaign and the first win since beating Chelsea back in August when Ralph Hasenhuttl was still manager.
Ruben Selles said: “It was not the best football match that we can play but we showed character and we showed awareness in some of the moments we prepared during the week. We will take it. You need to understand the game was about mindset, which is very important for us. When you are in the position we are, it is not easy to keep possession and calm things down with the lines open. Sometimes it is about let’s fight for the last 10/15 minutes, it is not something you can tell them to do but instead it just comes. We are getting there.
Saints had to hold on through a rocky final 20 minutes and were only let off the hook as Leicester forward Kelechi Iheanacho had a disappointing day in front of goal. St Mary’s was still full of nerves before and after Saints had taken the lead, while Moi Elyounoussi was booed onto the pitch when he came on for Alcaraz due to injury.
Ruben Selles said: “I think it is natural for everybody to be nervous as they haven’t seen a victory here since last year. It became natural in the last minutes to become nervous, it’s not like we want that but it is natural. I think we managed it well, although we were lucky in the last action. If we scored the penalty it could have been 2-0, those are the margins and we have them today for us.”
Selles had changed tact from his previous two league matches as boss, dropping the 4-2-2-2 in favour of a 4-2-3-1 with Alcaraz in the 10 position.
Ruben Selles said: “The game plan was to have Charly in that second striker role, jumping into possession in the central spaces and making it difficult for them. I think we showed that we want to defend high, especially in the first half. The reward was we won some balls at their end of the pitch and the goal was a reflection of what we needed to do. It was a brilliant finish from Carlos and a great pass from Che (Adams).”
