Only Nottingham Forest have used more players in the Premier League this season than Saints’ 32 – level with Chelsea – as all three clubs toil through challenging and underwhelming campaigns. And speaking ahead of Monday night’s trip to Nottingham Forest, Selles provided insight into the challenges of managing such a large squad while admitting that it has likely played a role in Saints’ disastrous season.
Ruben Selles said: “You don’t need to be a genius in football to know that when you have a bigger squad, it’s more difficult to manage internally and also in the rotation of the games. Because the relations are difficult between the players, not only for the coach but for the players as well it is difficult. It doesn’t matter which kind of players you have because I think the Nottingham Forest squad is very different to our squad in terms of the pattern of the players. And even for Chelsea – who is number three on that list – it is difficult because there are a lot of personal situations that tend to be more individual than a team issue. And when you don’t have those kinds of relations, it’s more difficult to compete. So definitely when you have a big squad either it’s a big big reason for that (the problems building relationships between players) or the preference would be to have smaller squads.”
Steve Cooper’s side enter the weekend in the bottom three on goal difference, six points clear of Saints. Defeat for Saints would leave them on the brink of officially being relegated to the Championship and while Selles has insisted the he and his players still believe that they can overturn the deficit to safety in the final four games, he admitted that another loss on Monday – which would be their seventh in the last nine matches – would make things significantly more difficult.
Ruben Selles added: “There are moments when you’re up and you’re down but that is normal for all of us. Players know they can do it and it’s not a case where we feel we’re completely out of it, we compete against every team and it’s our belief we have been competitive but for some reason or another we haven’t got the points. If there is a time to do it then it is now.”
