Southampton: Hasenhuttl “still loves” Saints job at 1 year anniversary

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has said that he is still enjoying the challenge of being the club’s manager – despite a tough start to the 2019/20 season.

The Austrian reached his one-year anniversary at St Mary’s today after being appointed on the 6th December 2018.

His initial impact was superb and he led Saints to safety by a comfortable margin last campaign, but this season looks like needing another escape act to evade the Premier League’s relegation zone.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the win against Norwich City, Hasenhuttl said:

"“I still love my job here and I think the way we showed how committed we are in the last month has been special for me. It has given me the signal that it was absolutely the right decision for me to come here. It’s a special club and we know about the difficulties of our way, but we go this way together and there is a chance for us to develop young players and to make them better.”"

Since his first game in the Saints dugout – a 1-0 away loss to Cardiff City – last December, Hasenhuttl has a positive record as boss.

In that time, he has 45 points from 38 games after 12 wins, nine draws and 17 losses in the league.

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Most recently of course, he has overseen two crucial wins over both Watford and Norwich City to lift the club back out of the top-flight relegation zone.

Given that it has been a struggle to get his team back to playing in the way that he wants, he deserves great credit and has momentarily won back the support of those who doubted he could turn it around.

Hasenhuttl took over from Mark Hughes when he came in and it was seen as a real coup for Saints to get him on board following his highly successful spell with RB Leipzig.

Key to his appointment was the playing style that he prefers that sees high-pressing football played on the front foot – in contrast to the three Saints bosses before him.

Initially it was important for him to get results with defensive stability in a 3-4-2-1 system, but this season has seen him look to implement his 4-2-2-2.

It has taken a while and a brief move away from it once again, but this system seems to be working in the current run of games that Saints are facing.

A draw against Arsenal was followed by the two most recent wins, whilst more vital clashes with Newcastle and West Ham are just around the corner.