YAN Valery admitted that he was “not really happy because I like to attack,” when first asked to play centre-back by Ralph Hasenhuttl, but says he’s now realised the boss was right. The 22-year-old became the man of the moment as Saints held on to a 1-1 draw with Tottenham despite having just 10 men on the field for over a half of football.
Yan Valery said: “Obviously I never played there so I know I can do better with more games,” Valery modestly reflected, speaking to the Daily Echo at full-time. But yeah, I was really happy, I’m really happy with the defence and how they were talking to me, Kyle (Walker-Peters) at right-back as well. It was good for a first time so like I said I am really happy with the point and not conceding a goal in the second-half. To be honest, the first time against Chelsea I was not really happy because I really like to attack. But he (Hasenhuttl) told me that I can do it and he knows why he’s pushing me there. After I played against Chelsea I was like ‘okay, it’s fine actually’, and when I went on the pitch today I knew I had to do the same as against Chelsea but better and yeah, I was just ready to do it.”
Valery – who has made 44 first-team appearances for Saints since progressing through the academy at Staplewood – has even been used as a right-midfielder before by Hasenhuttl.
Yan Valery added: “No, they just asked me. And at the time they said you can experience a bit more playing as a centre-back. I thought ‘okay, I need some gametime’, and now in today’s game I was more used to playing as a centre-back, so I just thought why not get the experience?”
