Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl spoke to the media ahead of Saints' next Premier League fixture against Wolves on Monday night. Take a look at what he had to say below...
On Team News...
“Both are looking good (Ryan Bertrand and James Ward-Prowse), they can both train with the team and should be available for this game hopefully.
“Is he? (Danny Ings being ahead of schedule) I don’t know. He is walking around quite good but there is still time to go. It looks good with no complications and yeh it was a small surgery and he looks good.
“Everybody else is training at the moment but I haven’t seen everyone else returned from Internationals.
"Jan Bednarek played on Wednesday but seems okay. Moussa (Djenepo) I haven’t seen so far, Jan Vestergaard was in his first session with us today so we have all the guys back and it’s an advantage to play on Monday as we can work on a few parts.”
On new contract for Oriol Romeu...
“He was always important for us. Definitely a role model for professional players by how he acts with the team even when he isn’t playing. He’s got a fantastic character, fantastic guy and glad we could sign him for another two years.
“I think he enjoys what we are doing here as it fits perfectly for him to his game. He has made big development with the ball in the last few weeks and this is what we were hoping for.”
“I think there was a time the middle of last season where he was behind Prowsey (James Ward-Prowse), (Pierre-Emille) Hojbjerg and (Wil) Smallbone but during lockdown he lost some weight and changed his game and came back fitter.
“He took his chance when Hojbjerg was injured and played well with Prowsey. He grabbed this chance and was prepared for this chance to come.”
On potential five substitutes rule...
“I wasn’t always a big fan of this five substitutes, even when I was in the Bundesliga I could make five subs, three times a game so I was happy for a bit when they changed it to five subs here. The crazy thing is that I didn’t use it very often even if we could.
“I don’t think it avoids injuries as one fact is that with the five subs the game doesn’t slow down and it speeds up again so it causes more problems for the guys on the pitch so everyone gets tired towards the end.
“I don’t think it protects you from injuries. It definitely helps to flip the players and have some rest time for the teams that have more games than we have so it’s an advantage for them but it's okay for me. Five subs in this special season at this intense time with a lot of fixtures is a good thing for me.”
On potentially going on four match winning run...
“(Is it an important thing for you?) No not really. We have another big challenge at the weekend. We have an opponent is famous for his good mentality, not giving up and is tough to take points.
“We went there last season and got a draw and made a good game and the home game we were 2-0 up and lost. It’s important just to focus on what to do rather than the stats.
“There’s nothing older than the success of yesterday so don’t speak too much about it. We don’t speak about defeat or wins too much.
"We just focus on the main part of the game as we need to have good solutions and be optimistic with the ball and pay good attention without it as they have a good transition. It will be interesting.”
On briefly going top of the league...
“it was nice for the fans but I was also not bothered but moving positions as we don’t need to focus about being top of the league.
“It’s not a position we should be in as we have more development to go as a team and club. Yes, we do a good job at the moment and that’s why we have lots of points and that’s what we enjoy.
“The guys are discussing what we are doing different at the moment and you can feel we are focused on that job and this is what I like to see, us always being hungry. The table isn’t important until the end of the season.”
On Ché Adams...
“Eveybody must take responsibility when Ingsy isn’t part of the game. As I always say without Ingsy we lose some qualities in a different way and we have to handle this.
“We have lots of offensive players in the squad but they are not playing all the time now as we have good duos up front but this is the chance to show up and who does it best gets to play.
“When Danny Ings comes back, if we are a winning team then we don’t change a winning team so there’s a chance.”
On Wolves...
“We had some good one or two halves against them in the past where we showed what we can do. I think they have good game management so we need to be disciplined with or without the ball. They have a good counter pressing.
“In modern football if you don’t perform every part of your game it is always difficult to win. Especially for us and I can feel it. Hopefully the Monday fixture is easier for us after the International break where they have played a different style.”
On increased schedule until January...
“Now it is really hard work, it’s always hard, but no break until March which is a long time. Last season we showed we liked to play in this rhythm and the more rhythm we get the better we are normally.
“Although we play intense way, we love this three games a week, busy time over Christmas. Every player is now key to stay fit as some games come quicker than you think and hopefully we won't have any long term injuries.”
ralph hasenhüttl
in modern football if you don't perform every part of your game, it is always difficult to win.
manager
On Dementia in football...
“I can only speak from my experience as I took alot of this (heading the ball) in my playing career. My biggest strength was the header. I know there are some brain cells dying from this and we all know this.
“I think to avoid dementia, I can always work on my brain and build new brain cells and new connections and this is possible. You should work on this but sure for the young kids we must pay attention to not to do much heading.
“You can see now with the players coming out of the academy they lack this skill as they don’t do as much heading. We must find solution with different balls to help learn the technique so to not take powerful shots to the head.
“There is a discussion and solutions are needed and we need to protect them.”
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