Ralph Hasenhuttl
Ralph Hasenhuttl has admitted Southampton’s fine form has forced him into rethinking his January transfer plans. Ralph Hasenhuttl also gave insight about how his players wanted to write their own story against Leicester City after the humiliation of October’s 9-0 defeat to the Foxes.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “We never spoke revenge or something related to 9 – 0 defeat by Leicester City. But we wanted to show everybody watching us that we can do much better, and what this team has changed since then. We’ve changed everything – the behavior, how we play, how we create chances, the commitment, the belief in what we are doing. At the moment we are really hungry, and if you are hungry then you can hunt for 90 minutes, or longer, and that’s one of the reasons why we are successful now. We will never forget the result of the first game, but the second part of the story was for us, and that was the target”
Saints have conjured five wins and a draw from their last six matches in all competitions, to pull away from the Premier League relegation zone and reach the FA Cup fourth round. Saints have been linked with a move for Tottenham’s Kyle Walker-Peters, but while Hasenhuttl refused to be drawn on individual targets he did concede his squad is in a much stronger place now than even six weeks ago.
Academy graduate Jake Vokins’ rapid development in particular now has Hasenhuttl believing there is no huge onus on Saints to land any new recruits this month.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said “If we bring somebody in we must be sure that we don’t block the development of our young players, because this is in general our main way we want to go here in Southampton, to develop the young players. We have a few interesting ones in our squad, so we won’t do anything unless we really want to. And when we really want to sign a player it really has to make sense. Sure on the full-back positions we were struggling a little, but Yan Valery is back earlier than we thought and Jake Vokins’ development is better than we thought. So we don’t have a ‘must’ now, we can do something if we want. But as you know me and our club, we don’t do anything just to do something. We’ll have to be careful but we’ll have our eyes open and if something is really perfect for us, then yes, maybe we’ll do something.”
In-form Southampton striker Danny Ings has blasted 10 goals in 11 Premier League games, leaving Saints boss Hasenhuttl tipping the 27-year-old for a first international call in more than four years. Ings tore knee ligaments just days after his sole England cap in October 2015, and has only managed to regain total sharpness and form this season.
