Southampton: Hasenhuttl slates Saints’ defending against West Ham

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl didn’t hold back in his post-match interviews after seeing his side well beaten by West Ham on Saturday.

Saints fell to a 3-1 loss and put in a display that saw both weak defending and not enough creativity in attack to record their third loss in four league games.

After the game, Hasenhuttl let it be known exactly what he thought of his players failing to deal with the threats they knew West Ham would pose.

Speaking to BBC Sport, he said:

"“We conceded goals that were a joke. The first, the second and the third goal, just one long ball. We trained the whole week, we know what will come and cannot defend this ball.“If we played like this against a team that is in a relegation battle, then you are also very quickly back in the relegation battle, so pay attention”."

Given the turnaround that Hasenhuttl has produced since the early part of the season, it is fair to say that recent form is just a blip.

However, the gap from Saints to the bottom three has now been cut back to seven points and meant that real focus will have to return in upcoming fixtures against both Newcastle and Norwich.

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• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
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It is clear to see that some progress has been made overall this campaign.

Hasenhuttl had got his players performing well using the tactics that he wanted to implement since he arrived on the South Coast, Danny Ings has been a revelation and some young players have come to the fore.

It is still obvious that the Austrian’s squad is a number of signings away from being where he wants it to be though.

The summer transfer window will be vital for Saints and they will surely be wanting to bolster their defence as well as moving some players currently at the club on permanently.

Another thing that Hasenhuttl may be thinking about is a ‘plan B’ for when things don’t click the way that Saints want.

Last season, he used a 3-4-2-1 that provided the stability that was needed to get the results required for safety in the top-flight. Maybe something similar could be utilised in the remainder of the campaign.

The main issue is definitely needing players that will do specific jobs with just that little bit more efficiency, but giving other teams something else to work out would be a short term solution.