The Southampton manager is encouraging his more experienced professionals to step up to help and advise youngsters in the squad as the team battle to beat the drop.
Ruben Selles said: “Everybody wants to give a solution. If it’s not Theo Walcott, it’s Stuart Armstrong, Willy Caballero or Ward-Prowse. And of course they need to give advice, of course they see things that sometimes you don’t see. You need to hear them because if you hear them, you are closer to seeing the solutions. The dressing room needs to be alive, so it’s not only Theo but it’s all of them – they have all stepped up and they all want to move things forward. In the leadership that I practise, everybody has a space and in the good moments, we are together. It is teamwork. I don’t see this as a special thing. Giving people the freedom to step in and know what we’re doing is good because sometimes they know the solution, I don’t even need to say the solution and they already know. Sometimes it is much better to talk player-to-player than to talk coach-to-player because they can be more direct to each other and they can understand each other.”
Selles saved special praise for former Saints Academy scholar Theo Walcott, who has featured more under the new manager. James Ward-Prowse, Kyle Walker-Peters and Stuart Armstrong are among more experienced members of the squad His return to the starting line-up coincided with a return to winning ways for Saints on Saturday, but youngsters are also benefitting from his experience with Arsenal and England.
Ruben Selles added: “Theo Walcott is the best example, and I think we are getting more and more benefit from his knowledge for what the young lads need to do, and what they need to avoid. Theo has been in football for almost half of his life, from when smartphones were not there and when you had the paparazzi, and he was the youngest player for England in the World Cup. To the moment now when his life is more calm and he’s an experienced player in the Premier League. The young lads need to listen to what he has to say and pay attention because it’ll be a big advantage for them.”
