Ralph Hasenhuttl insists he has no problems with the packed festive fixture schedule, adding how complaining about it would send “the wrong signal”. Saints are set to play seven Premier League games in 27 days, starting with their trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday. The busiest top-flight teams in that same period are set to be Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City who will each play eight times due to European and Carabao Cup fixtures as well as their league games. But Hasenhuttl insists he has no concerns about the upcoming schedule.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “I was never moaning about any fixtures, We have it different as we are out of the League Cup and have no international (European) games, so for us it is easier than for the top six sides maybe. Also last season, the tough time with the fixtures following very quickly, was the most successful for us. We are a fit team, we need automatism, the more we have, we hopefully do not struggle with playing a lot of games. We have a good balanced squad, not too big, not too small. When we have some injury problems like we do now with (Danny) Ings and (Nathan) Redmond, we still are able to perform well. For me, with the fixtures, I think we are happy. What I sometimes do not understand is 48 hours between two games, this is definitely something tough for the players We had it last season also and still performed well, but it is not the best for the quality of the game, because the players cannot push like they normally want to. We don’t have this over Christmas, we have always two days between the two games, so this is okay for me, absolutely. We take it as it is, never moaning about, I think it is the wrong signal to do it.”
