RALPH Hasenhuttl admitted his side “must be more clinical” but that he has faith in Saints’ forwards to take them up the Premier League table. Only skipper James Ward-Prowse and Armando Broja have managed to score two goals in the league for Saints, 10 games into the 2021-22 season. Broja’s fitness remains unknown going forward into Aston Villa on Friday, but speaking before last weekend Hasenhuttl identified the same concerns, albeit confident that it won’t be an issue.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “For a striker, goals are very important, but in the away games, we have had a lot of opportunities. I remember how often we entered the box against Newcastle and Man City but didn’t find the right final decision. We could have been a little bit cooler. We will have a game where we find all of these positions and then I know we can score goals. When you are in the box like we have been, even on Tuesday (against Chelsea), there will always be opportunities to score.”
Adams scored a superb effort to secure the win and make it two in two last week for him, after he had also equalised at Stamford Bridge, but has still only registered 15 in 86 in all comps for Saints. Armstrong is still waiting for his first strike since 20 minutes into the opening day of the season at Goodison Park. And asked if Broja has already shown that he has the ability to eclipse the pairing,
Ralph Hasenhuttl responded: “There’s no question that he showed in the two Premier League games he started that he has the qualities we want to have. But very often in football, as soon as something is looking very pretty, an injury comes or a suspension. You have to reset the group and you never have time to think, ‘What if?’. It’s about working out what you can do and finding the best possible shape with the best mix of players up front to give you the extra quality to score. As we saw on Tuesday, without Broja we still have players who can score. We have to give them the trust and bring them into the position where we can make the final goal. This is the challenge for me and a challenge for the team.”
