Southampton: Hasenhuttl confirms how many January transfers he’ll try for

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed how many players he wants the club to bring in during the January transfer window.

Next month sees the chance for club’s to sign players to try and turn their season around and Saints will surely be no different considering their position in the Premier League.

Defensive reinforcements will be needed if they are to secure more clean sheets and therefore more points towards top-flight safety.

Speaking to the media before Saints’ game at Chelsea tomorrow, Hasenhuttl said:

"“We have a few positions where we have a lot of alternatives and other positions, we don’t have any. This is not healthy when we have suspensions or injuries. The problem is the (transfer) fee for Premier League clubs is always very high. We will try to bring two guys in.”"

Links have been made by the media to a few players so far.

Genk full-back Joakim Maehle has been mentioned as a target with Cedric out of contract in the summer and Yan Valery seemingly seen as more of a wing-back.

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RB Leipzig centre-back Marin Pongracic has also been linked with Saints needing leaders at the heart of their backline, whilst Marc Guehi and Josh Brownhill are also potential targets according more recent reports.

More links are sure to come and it will be interesting to see how January pans out for for Saints and how much money they will be able to spend.

The January window normally sees highly inflated prices for clubs in England and getting the players that they want may come at a premium.

Getting some players off the wage bill may be key to freeing up funds for signings though.

As mentioned before, Cedric has been linked with a move away and will certainly leave at some point this season, whilst permanent moves away for other players may have to wait until the summer.

Hasenhuttl predicting two players coming in could mean a full-back and a new centre-back arriving to provide extra options for the second half of the campaign.

Along with Norwich, Saints have conceded the joint-most goals in the Premier League in 2019/20 but have been okay at scoring goals, with Danny Ings in particular in red hot form.