This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has been speaking to the media ahead of his side’s game against Watford this weekend.
Firstly, he offered a quite hilarious update on the fitness of Sofiane Boufal, revealing that the Moroccan had sustained a swollen toe after stubbing it on a table while running to his kitchen – the former Lille man is a doubt for the game against the Hornets because of the issue, as he hasn’t trained for three days.
However, the former RB Leipzig boss had some more serious words to say on the Saints’ upcoming fixtures.
What did he say?
The Austrian said: “I think every period is important, but this one now against teams around us is very, very important – they are all ‘six-point games’, if you want.
“Wins are massive and losing is also massive, so this is a very, very important period until Christmas.”
“Everybody knows that if you want to be in the end above the (relegation) line, then you must start to take points consistently.”
Absolutely must keep stressing this to his players
Hasenhuttl states that this period is “very, very important” for his side – however, even that is an understatement.
Southampton take on Watford next, before facing games against Norwich, Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa, a run of fixtures that is absolutely pivotal to their hopes of staying up, or even getting to Christmas without being the Premier League’s basement side.
That is a very real possibility, as the Saints are just one point off the bottom of England’s top-flight as things stand, and will head into December as the 20th-placed team if they lose to Watford.
History has shown that, if you are at the bottom of the Premier League come Christmas, then your chances of survival are very, very slim – only three sides since 1999/2000 have survived a campaign having been bottom at Christmas.
“Three times since 1999-2000 have clubs — West Brom 2004-05, Sunderland 2013-14 and Leicester 2014-15 — been bottom at Christmas and survived.”
Achieving 12 points from those aforementioned four fixtures is very feasible if the impressive showing against Arsenal is anything to go by, and would leave the south coast side on 21 points from 17 games, which isn’t the worst situation in the world.
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He has already touched on it, but Hasenhuttl absolutely must drill the importance of these next four games into his players until they can’t get it out of their heads – it is that crucial.
In other news, Hasenhuttl’s injury update on this Southampton man – not Boufal – has come at the worst possible time…
