Manchester City 3-1 Southampton: Hasenhuttl pleased with ‘committed’ Saints display

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl said he was pleased with his side’s commitment in their 3-1 loss to Manchester City on Tuesday evening.

An opening goal from Nicolas Otamendi and a brace from Sergio Aguero saw City claim a comfortable win in the end, whilst Saints replied late on with a powerful header from Jack Stephens.

Whilst his side were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the Fourth-Round stage, Hasenhuttl saw definite positives as his players looked to respond to their 9-0 loss to Leicester City on Friday.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent after the game, the Austrian said:

"“It was a good reaction and, in general, the team was much more committed today. This was the most important thing. It couldn’t get worse after last week, but it was the main goal to find the answer for ourselves. What happened on Friday, how it happened and why it happened. The whole mentality today was a completely different one.”"

Saints return to the Etihad Stadium his coming weekend to take on City in the Premier League and will need to be prepared to face a much stronger opposition line-up.

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It can be argued these two clashes with City can be used to return to some sort of form and team shape before starting the real run of fixtures that could save Saints’ season.

This starts with Everton arriving at St Mary’s on 9th November, before meetings with Arsenal – who look in a bad spell themselves – and Watford are played out before we reach December.

Saints will hope to have got some more points on the board by the end of this run and hit games against Norwich, Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa with real confidence.

Hasenhuttl and his men may well have been completely embarrassed against Leicester, but their situation has a refreshing aspect to it too.

The manager is seemingly not under pressure from the people above him and the focus has been on how the players respond instead. The club have chosen try and sort their recruitment plans – and reportedly have a new Director of Football lined up – whilst planning how to sort their squad.

As outlined by many since Friday night, the troubles that the club finds itself in is the culmination of many things that may take a while to resolve.