Ralph Hasenhuttl

[Baird of the land]

Again, you're missing the point. If rh was told he couldn't buy any more CBs because we already had five in the squad, then of course he looks to strengthen other areas rather than just sitting on his hands.

 

We've spent around £40m on CBs over the past few seasons (Hoedt (16m), Vest (18m) & Bednarek (6m). I can more easily believe that a board that doesn't understand football looks at that level of investment and says 'no more' than I can imagine RH telling the board that what we've got already is good enough. After all, he didn't come here intending to play a back five - he had to resort to it after realising that our CBs aren't good enough in his first few games.

 

I find it far easier to believe that Ralph prioritized pace further up the pitch than the board blocking him buying a center back and made him buy a winger.

[Dusic]

I find it far easier to believe that Ralph prioritized pace further up the pitch than the board blocking him buying a center back and made him buy a winger.

Or maybe he believed/understood they would back him and buy a CB as well as Djenepo and Adams.

 

Clearly Ralph expected us to sign a good CB...and Danso was probably way down the list and not who RH thought would be the CB we signed at the start of the summer.

 

We were linked with quite a few including Webster and Saliba, but presumably found it hard to do the deals for various reasons, mostly financial.

 

I don't believe for one second that Ralph was happy that our CB signing ended up being Danso on deadline day...that clearly wasn't the plan.

[Dellman]

Ralph has looked a bit low from the start of the season, and steadily more miserable ever since, with reason. My impression is that he felt let down or disappointed with the summer business. And that makes motivation difficult. I don't blame him, he has a Board without football brains

[Fookwit]

I’m actually starting to think Allardyce could be a good idea.. always sorts teams out, good defensively made a huge difference at the likes of Everton, and has only really took any flak from fussy fans complaining about the football a bit like Puel here maybe.. would be a good guy to steady the ship whilst we sort out new director of football etc and would be much less of a gamble then persisting with hasenhuttl

I was living in Liverpool at the time and never met a Evertonian who was happy with Alladyce. He is football dinosaur anf the reason he never stays at a club long.

[DT]

I was living in Liverpool at the time and never met a Evertonian who was happy with Alladyce. He is football dinosaur anf the reason he never stays at a club long.

 

He kept them up. Job done.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Baird of the land]

Or maybe he believed/understood they would back him and buy a CB as well as Djenepo and Adams.

 

Clearly Ralph expected us to sign a good CB...and Danso was probably way down the list and not who RH thought would be the CB we signed at the start of the summer.

 

We were linked with quite a few including Webster and Saliba, but presumably found it hard to do the deals for various reasons, mostly financial.

 

I don't believe for one second that Ralph was happy that our CB signing ended up being Danso on deadline day...that clearly wasn't the plan.

 

I'm not saying he was happy just that it wasn't his first priority. He probably expected to buy one with the money raised from lemina etc. That didn't happen hence the last minute Danso

[Micky]

He kept them up. Job done.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This year's Mark Hughes. What a sorry state we are in.

 

Sent from my SM-T590 using Tapatalk

[The Odd Guy]

A handy reminder of Ralph's and the clubs philosophy 3 months ago.

 

Ralph Hasenhuttl has been explaining Southampton’s philosophy in the transfer market and insisted that he remains ‘comfortable’ with the way things work at the club.

Saints have championed a strategy over the past years that entails recruiting younger, lesser-heard of players from across Europe before refining them and turning a significant profit.

However, this model appeared to shift in recent transfer windows, and as such, the club faced battles to remain in the Premier League.

Hasenhuttl is now at the helm and has been discussing how Southampton’s philosophy is carried out. He was keen to stay realistic and spoke to TV2 about the club’s aspirations for the future. The manager said:

 

" We know our philosophy. It’s developing players who can move on to bigger clubs after a couple of years.

 

That’s the way we are, and we’re comfortable with that. We cannot have the same goals as Liverpool and Manchester City. But we can have our goals, and last year we beat some of the big clubs. It means a lot.

We learn a lot from it. Either we win – or we learn."

 

Hasenhuttl’s comments will probably anger a section of the club’s fan-base; he is clearly aware of the limitations that have been set at St Mary’s Stadium under the current ownership and has not been tasked with achieving unrealistic feats in his first Premier League campaign.

However, it is positive to see that we have a manager who continues to be transparent despite the evident restrictions of a tight transfer budget, and there is now a clear emphasis on returning to the ethos of nurturing young players, which had previously gone awry under the likes of Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes.

 

Saints fans may want more money spent, and in an ideal world, we would be in a position to finance deals for players who could propel us to competing for the top seven again.

 

https://readsouthampton.com/2019/08/20/hasenhuttl-explains-saints-philosophy-and-it-may-serve-as-a-reality-check/

[Saint Billy]

Well they are going to have to shift from that stance to get us out of our current predicament.

[ally_uk]

Get Rafa in

[Turkish]

Get Rafa in

 

If he cant work with Mike Ashley he wont be able to work with Goa!

[DT]

DoF won't be Arsene, then. Just got a job with FIFA

[Dellman]

Rafa would be wonderful and he wouldn't see Gao because nobody does and he wouldn't have to speak with him because nobody can and he wouldn't have his criticisms after matches because he never comes. He would have a free hand

[Give it to Ron]

DoF won't be Arsene, then. Just got a job with FIFA

 

Did you really think that was ever likely?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kenneth_kenobi]

What happened to our high pressing game which did us so well in early Ralph days? Instead we park the bus and hope for a miracle

[S-Clarke]

What happened to our high pressing game which did us so well in early Ralph days? Instead we park the bus and hope for a miracle

 

We don't have the players for it. I assume he was hoping he'd be properlly backed to bring in the players who could play that way.

[verlaine1979]

We don't have the players for it. I assume he was hoping he'd be properlly backed to bring in the players who could play that way.

 

Yup - watching JWP, Romeu and Hoj stomp around the field is painful. We couldn't have three first-choice central midfielders less suited to playing an energetic press.

[Saint Troy]

We don't have the players for it. I assume he was hoping he'd be properlly backed to bring in the players who could play that way.

 

i get that we dont have the best players for it but if it worked when he first got here some players mustve left such that makes it impossible to not continue in that way? I dont think thats the case

[shurlock]

What happened to our high pressing game which did us so well in early Ralph days? Instead we park the bus and hope for a miracle

 

Agree. The forwards still press but its far less coordinated than it used to be.

 

You'd think that out of all the things within our control, outworking, outrunning and outpressing the opponent would be the easiest to execute - it is far less dependent on quality or talent. On the other hand, if you have a midfield and fullbacks that are painfully thin in depth, perhaps there are limits to how far you can return to basics over an entire season without running them into the ground. Never mind our CBs who are so slow that instructing them to press and play a high line is akin to a deathwish.

[MarkSFC]

Maybe Rafa as the DOF?? Mentor Ralph and guide the club from his experience.

[EBS1980]

He’s a manager in China on big bucks

[pimpin4rizeal]

I was living in Liverpool at the time and never met a Evertonian who was happy with Alladyce. He is football dinosaur anf the reason he never stays at a club long.

 

He still finished 8th with Everton and has pretty much done a great job at every club he’s been at ..fans just tend to want some exciting foreign manager... think he would keep us up and steady the ship

[DT]

Did you really think that was ever likely?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

No. Nice to dream though

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Give it to Ron]

No. Nice to dream though

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You dream of Wenger?? I’ll stick to a Kylie and Danni sandwich .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fookwit]

He still finished 8th with Everton and has pretty much done a great job at every club he’s been at ..fans just tend to want some exciting foreign manager... think he would keep us up and steady the ship

I’m not sure fans of Sunderland, Palace, Newcastle and West Ham would agree with you. However he did win the third division in 1997 and two promotions to the premier league in 2001 and 2012.

Also Who can forget his 100% England managerial record

[doddisalegend]

What happened to our high pressing game which did us so well in early Ralph days? Instead we park the bus and hope for a miracle

 

I don't remember it being a constant thing, last season under Ralph, we seemed to start games pressing hard but it would drop off as the game wore on. I think compared to what Hughes and the players had given us it seemed like a real step up in work rate and style but it only seemed to really work early on when the players where really trying (trying to impress the new manager I guess) .

 

We do still try to press when out of possession this season. Problem is when we do win the ball the players often screw up any benefit with poor passing/decision making. If they won the ball and a made a quick well placed pass we might get somewhere while the opposition is off balance. All to often though the players seem to dither or just lack the quality to making a telling pass.

 

Thing is teams the league that press really well City, Liverpool and spurs (well maybe not this season) have the quality to really make the most of it with pace, finishing ability and players who can pick a pass we don't have any of that.

[Professor]

Fans must be tired of the manager revolving door that hasn't produced any positive outcomes, unless hanging on in the Premier League by the thinnest thread, is acceptable. The evidence of managers coming and going throughout football, sometimes with successful seasons and sometimes not successful must show that a lot of other factors determine results apart from the manager. Hassenhuttl has all the right skills but what he doesn't have are enough players who are good enough.

It's comparatively easy to sack a manger, just one person, and maybe support staff whereas to replace the playing squad is a major problem and possibly not achievable in a short timescale. Already we have players registered with the club who are deemed not good enough to play here, but the club can't dispose of them. Realistically, it might take about 4 or 5 new players of proved quality to transform this teams results. Let's be honest. It isn't going to happen.

Players not good enough for us aren't going to be sold on easily, so we could just end up with more dead wood. The players we need aren't going to be available in the £15m price range, which seems to be where the club has done most of its shopping. Can't really see what the club can give Ralph in the January window that is going to make any difference. This looks more and more like the relegation season, much as we fans might find that hard to believe and hard to take. If we are still in the bottom three at Christmas, I doubt if I'll go to another match this season, because its just too depressing to see the team representing my club getting such poor results at home.

Sorry Ralph, I know you're trying but polishing a pile of glass has never turned it into diamonds.

[Charlie Wayman]

Looks like Hasenhuttl and his players have gone into lock down mode again. Not as much as a peep from them on the OS. Wonder what's going on at Marchwood.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Looks like Hasenhuttl and his players have gone into lock down mode again. Not as much as a peep from them on the OS. Wonder what's going on at Marchwood.

 

Training I would think

[Morse]

Fans must be tired of the manager revolving door that hasn't produced any positive outcomes, unless hanging on in the Premier League by the thinnest thread, is acceptable. The evidence of managers coming and going throughout football, sometimes with successful seasons and sometimes not successful must show that a lot of other factors determine results apart from the manager. Hassenhuttl has all the right skills but what he doesn't have are enough players who are good enough.

It's comparatively easy to sack a manger, just one person, and maybe support staff whereas to replace the playing squad is a major problem and possibly not achievable in a short timescale. Already we have players registered with the club who are deemed not good enough to play here, but the club can't dispose of them. Realistically, it might take about 4 or 5 new players of proved quality to transform this teams results. Let's be honest. It isn't going to happen.

Players not good enough for us aren't going to be sold on easily, so we could just end up with more dead wood. The players we need aren't going to be available in the £15m price range, which seems to be where the club has done most of its shopping. Can't really see what the club can give Ralph in the January window that is going to make any difference. This looks more and more like the relegation season, much as we fans might find that hard to believe and hard to take. If we are still in the bottom three at Christmas, I doubt if I'll go to another match this season, because its just too depressing to see the team representing my club getting such poor results at home.

Sorry Ralph, I know you're trying but polishing a pile of glass has never turned it into diamonds.

 

"Hasselhuttle has all thre right skills", really? The evidence suggests otherwise. With largely the same squad, the previous two managers managed to avoid the worst ever home start to a season and a record defeat. However I agree we do have to stop sacking managers and look at the team. Our policy of buying young players in the £15m pound bracket with the sole aim to sell them on to bigger clubs doesn't work and has led us to this position more than any other factor. There have been seasoned, experienced players available for free had the club abandoned their crazy policy. Had we signed Cahill in the summer I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be where we are. Now some will point to his lack of re-sale value and his apparent £90K a week salary. But do the sums, 2 years of £90k a week comes to just over £9m, now compare that to the millions written off on players out on loan or sitting warming a bench. And you get a mentor for the young players thrown in for free. Laurie Mac made a career of this policy.

[Baird of the land]

Looks like Hasenhuttl and his players have gone into lock down mode again. Not as much as a peep from them on the OS. Wonder what's going on at Marchwood.

 

I guess they don't want to reveal Ralph's tactical masterplan of playing Angus Gunn as a left back too early.

[LeBizzier69]

Training I would think

 

Haven’t watched them I’d say that’s unlikely.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Haven’t watched them I’d say that’s unlikely.

 

What do they do then?

[saint lard]

Training I would think

 

Behind closed doors friendly against Brentford.

 

 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/18037452.southampton-beat-brentford-4-0-behind-close-doors-friendly/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DT]

We did a nil!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Manuel]

Behind closed doors friendly against Brentford.

 

 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/18037452.southampton-beat-brentford-4-0-behind-close-doors-friendly/

Can we play you every week?

 

No, will twice a year next season do?

[DT]

You dream of Wenger?? I’ll stick to a Kylie and Danni sandwich .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Oh okay. That kind of dream.

[LeBizzier69]

What do they do then?

 

If I could guess I’d say walking relay races around the canteen and changing rooms, with a baton being replaced with a posh wash bag...followed by a few hours of PS4 or Xbox.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

If I could guess I’d say walking relay races around the canteen and changing rooms, with a baton being replaced with a posh wash bag...followed by a few hours of PS4 or Xbox.

 

Sounds like fact, thanks

[way down south]

No actually I think there’s a lot of truth in what you say about the constraints.. but it still begs the question of why was koeman allowed so much of his own players as transfers then? to add to pelle, tadic , Clasie martina etc, you even had the likes of Elia djuracic on loan even if you put Toby etc down to Mitchell or someone else., koeman stamp looked all over the club and it worked

 

To answer the first question no I don’t expect him to ditch all centre backs and a lot of this theory is based on the likes of Hughes saying he had final say on transfers and being able to see the influence of koeman etc, but If he has got the final say then it should be used on transfers or loans he sees fit to step into the side and improve us no ?

 

i suspect that how it works with transfers is that ralph draws up a list of players he wants in with first choice ones and last resort types for each position. in the case of danso, as we couldn't sell any of the cbs we have, lack of funds meant that we could only loan one so i guess we tried and failed to negotiate a loan deal for any of our top targets so we ended up with danso, who i suppose was way down the list because despite ticking most boxes he still lacks experience and leadership qualities. two things our defence currently needs.

 

if this indeed is how things went down, it doesn't excuse ralph from all the horrendous decisions ralph has made with regards to lineups, subs and overall tactics.

[sadoldgit]

I think the days of managers going to scout opposition players on their days off are long gone. I expect he will tell them what type of player he is looking for in certain positions and they will go through their black box stuff and come up with a list for him to look at. His job is to coach the team and get the best out of them. Good luck with that Ralph.

[Toussaint]

Ralph has looked a bit low from the start of the season, and steadily more miserable ever since, with reason. My impression is that he felt let down or disappointed with the summer business. And that makes motivation difficult. I don't blame him, he has a Board without football brains

 

Could be, but it could be anything, physical illness, mental struggles, family not settling, homesickness, isolation (see all previous) - some of which self imposed, sense of failure, the global spotlight of the EPL, realising he is hopelessly out of his depth, but its all speculation.

[tajjuk]

What happened to our high pressing game which did us so well in early Ralph days? Instead we park the bus and hope for a miracle

 

It's still there, I read an article in the Athletic about it.

 

Amazingly even though it has dropped from the start of the season and dropped from last season, based on PPDA (passes per defensive action) which basically measures how many passes a team can put together on average before a tackle, interception or foul.

 

The lower the number the better, and this season we are the 6th best in the Premier League for it., and only Man City and Liverpool have won more balls in the opposition third than us.

 

It's slowly been going down though, probably due to a lack of confidence players on the pitch almost sub consciously and against the managers wishes slip more into a low block. Ralf was seen screaming at the players to press higher and harder against Everton but they just didn't do it, so something is off be it confidence thing, or a worry about counters, or mental/physical fatigue.

 

We had a PPDA 'high' of 6.86 against Spurs, and aside when we played Liverpool, our early season PPDA was in the 8-10 range, but its move to more like the 12-13 range.

 

For whatever reason has caused it we need to get it back, we are also clearly good at it and score goals from it.

[Whitey Grandad]

It's still there, I read an article in the Athletic about it.

 

Amazingly even though it has dropped from the start of the season and dropped from last season, based on PPDA (passes per defensive action) which basically measures how many passes a team can put together on average before a tackle, interception or foul.

 

The lower the number the better, and this season we are the 6th best in the Premier League for it., and only Man City and Liverpool have won more balls in the opposition third than us.

 

It's slowly been going down though, probably due to a lack of confidence players on the pitch almost sub consciously and against the managers wishes slip more into a low block. Ralf was seen screaming at the players to press higher and harder against Everton but they just didn't do it, so something is off be it confidence thing, or a worry about counters, or mental/physical fatigue.

 

We had a PPDA 'high' of 6.86 against Spurs, and aside when we played Liverpool, our early season PPDA was in the 8-10 range, but its move to more like the 12-13 range.

 

For whatever reason has caused it we need to get it back, we are also clearly good at it and score goals from it.

 

Wouldn't it also be a function of the quality of team that we are facing? That is to say, if we are facing Liverpool or Man City is it possible that their players can offload the ball quicker and be more comfotable in posession and under pressure?

[tajjuk]

Wouldn't it also be a function of the quality of team that we are facing? That is to say, if we are facing Liverpool or Man City is it possible that their players can offload the ball quicker and be more comfortable in posession and under pressure?

 

 

The article covered that in 'outliers' where we'd possibly change our approach to reflect the quality of oppositions, for example against Man City our PPDA was like 17 or 18 because we did a very low block. (as in parked the bus).

 

So the averages don't really include those two teams, and for example Spurs have decent players more than capable of playing out of a press but our PPDA was the best whilst Everton were a team ripe to press and most would agree less capable of playing out from a press but our PPDA was pretty much double.

 

As the season has gone on, aside the odd outlier, basically our press has slackened off.

[Archangel]

With the exception of Ings and Boufal (when he has been played) everything has slackened off.

[Whitey Grandad]

The article covered that in 'outliers' where we'd possibly change our approach to reflect the quality of oppositions, for example against Man City our PPDA was like 17 or 18 because we did a very low block. (as in parked the bus).

 

So the averages don't really include those two teams, and for example Spurs have decent players more than capable of playing out of a press but our PPDA was the best whilst Everton were a team ripe to press and most would agree less capable of playing out from a press but our PPDA was pretty much double.

 

As the season has gone on, aside the odd outlier, basically our press has slackened off.

Thanks for that. It certainly seems to appear that we have slackened off.

[pimpin4rizeal]

i suspect that how it works with transfers is that ralph draws up a list of players he wants in with first choice ones and last resort types for each position. in the case of danso, as we couldn't sell any of the cbs we have, lack of funds meant that we could only loan one so i guess we tried and failed to negotiate a loan deal for any of our top targets so we ended up with danso, who i suppose was way down the list because despite ticking most boxes he still lacks experience and leadership qualities. two things our defence currently needs.

 

if this indeed is how things went down, it doesn't excuse ralph from all the horrendous decisions ralph has made with regards to lineups, subs and overall tactics.

 

The part I don’t get is why agree to the Danso deal if you have no intention of playing him at centre back ?, I mean ok Adams did start to begin with and Ings performed better and kept the striker spot so that is fair enough

 

Danso on the other hand all our cbs are performing badly yet the only starts he gets are at wing back both sides ?

So I don’t get the thinking here were we just taking a look at Danso and have now decided he’s terrible (but still got time at be lb)

Was he just one for the future who like Ralph was saying we could take and develop? Again begs the question of why are we not trying to get someone in that can do a job now in a emergency position? Smacks of trying to be clever and mess around with youngsters when we need something now.

Whole situation is pretty weird if you ask me

[verlaine1979]

Wouldn't it also be a function of the quality of team that we are facing? That is to say, if we are facing Liverpool or Man City is it possible that their players can offload the ball quicker and be more comfotable in posession and under pressure?

 

The falling off might also have something to do with how easy we are to play through if you evade the press or hit us on the counter. If your front few are good at pressing, but your central midfield and defense are as porous as ours, its usefulness as an approach probably wanes quite quickly.

[simo]

Sounds like Rafa is looking for a premier league return ! Give Ralph 2 more games and then make our move if that's the case ?