Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted that his side are far from where they want to be after their 4-1 loss to Chelsea on Sunday.
Saints were well off the pace during the whole 90 minutes and have now lost their last three league games – now sitting just outside the relegation zone on goal difference.
With an upcoming run of fixtures that doesn’t look too welcoming on paper as well, things will have to improve at St Mary’s if Saints are to inch away from the bottom of the table.
Speaking to southamptonfc.com following the loss to Chelsea, Hasenhuttl said:
"“This was not an easy afternoon for us and we know that if we want to compete with them we need the highest performance and at the moment we are far away from that. Today we wanted to take more risks. Against the other teams we were a bit more passive so what I think is absolutely necessary is to find quicker decisions and have a quicker mind after we win the ball to create something.”"
In many ways, Hasenhuttl is in a difficult situation at the moment.
He has clearly been trying to implement his footballing philosophy on his squad during the opening weeks of this season, but it could be argued that he doesn’t have the players he needs just yet.
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His positivity can be applauded, but he may have to return to the more cautious setup that got Saints out of trouble after he arrived last December.
4-2-2-2 is the system that he has tried after his success with it at RB Leipzig, but gaps are continuing to appear in defence and the attack has yet to really click.
The next two games up for Saints are the impressive Wolves and Leicester City, whilst a League and Cup double then arrives against Manchester City.
Meetings with Everton and Arsenal then will be played out before December, but the next games up could prove to be the saviours for Hasenhuttl and his side should they not have success in the previous run.
Matches against lowly Watford, Norwich City, Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa come about before Christmas and look favourable on paper, but no Premier League games are easy as we know.
One thing is for sure though, Hasenhuttl will get the time he deserves to turn things around. After all, we’re only eight games into the season.