Southampton: Hasenhuttl on how “flexible” Saints bounced back vs Palace

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl praised his “flexible” side after seeing them claim a comfortable 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Tuesday.

Two superb strikes from Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong saw the Saints secure a fourth straight away victory in the league and move up to ninth in the table.

The display that his players put in on the ball clearly pleased Hasenhuttl as he labelled it one of the best attacking performances of the season so far.

Speaking to skysports.com post-match, he also said:

"“We only made one mistake in the first half from Jannik, but the rest of our plan, building up from behind and using the right spaces, it was very hard for Palace to defend. We were very flexible. It was not a coincidence that we had a lot of chances, the only concern from the first half was that we only scored once. We were more concentrated in the second period, and we stuck to the game plan. After the manner in which we lost the last game [against Wolves] we wanted to show that we can do it better.”"

There was perhaps a slight change in approach from Saints too with Michael Obafemi and Jannik Vestergaard coming on for Danny Ings and the injured Jan Bednarek.

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Both goals that were scored – and many of the chances that were created throughout the game – saw a familiar pattern develop that would have been a pleasing for Hasenhuttl to see.

Nathan Redmond’s opener came from a central position, with the winger having floated in off the left flank to receive a pinpoint pass from Jack Stephens before firing an unstoppable strike into the far corner.

Stuart Armstrong then had two efforts that went close to adding a second – both after he had drifted across from his position out on the right and in towards the centre.

This was also where he scored his goal from. Redmond poked the ball to him around 25 yards from goal and right in the centre again, meaning he had a choice of either corner of the net and picked out the left expertly.

Whenever it is decided that Ings needs a rest, perhaps this is how we will see Saints play from now on.

It seems that the front four of Long, Obafemi, Redmond and Armstrong were all given instruction to attack the centre and, therefore, produce more chances once they had started to combine.

The flexibility that Hasenhuttl praised was purely this – the movement of players in and out of their position to trouble the opposition defensively.