Southampton: Ralph on how Newcastle “didn’t have game plan” vs Saints

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has spoken about how he felt Newcastle didn’t have a set plan to win against his side on Saturday.

The Magpies eventually claimed a 1-0 win over Saints when Allan Saint-Maximin seized upon a mistake from Yan Valery and poked home the winning goal 10 minutes from time.

However, Hasenhuttl emphasised that he was pleased with the work that his players put in to thwart their opponents for much of the game after seeing Moussa Djenepo sent off early on.

Speaking to southamptonfc.com post-match, the Austrian said:

"“We tried to stop the opponent and we did it for a long time but then one mistake can decide the game. I didn’t have the feeling that they had a game plan, an idea of how they were going to score.“We defended well, we were very compact and close to centre. The distances between the lines and the players was very good and it helped us to win a lot of balls in front of our box and had a few counter attack chances also.”"

From an attacking point of view, it is clear to see where Hasenhuttl is coming from with his comments here.

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Newcastle dominated possession once Saints had gone down to 10 men and additional spaces seemed to be opening up in places where they hadn’t previously.

The visitors had 62% of the ball throughout the afternoon but wasted many chances to take the lead earlier than they did, with their league goal drought seemingly on their mind.

Dwight Gayle, Miguel Almiron and Matt Ritchie all saw good chances come and go, with the latter missing an ideal opportunity from the penalty spot.

Some of this was down to some inspired form from Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

He responded to a mistake against West Ham last week in spectacular fashion with a brilliant triple save early on before denying Ritchie with the first spot-kick save from a Saints player for 2,743 days (BBC Sport).

Newcastle’s approach when defending was more interesting though and caused Saints a real headache.

Whenever McCarthy looked to play a goal kick out from the back to one of his defenders, the visitors pushed up the pitch and matched Saints’ formation in a 4-2-2-2 – forcing a long kick almost every time with every player marked.

In all, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Saints come away from this game with a 0-0 draw considering the good work that they put in that was recognised by Hasenhuttl.

However, at this level of football – and with someone as alert as Allan Saint-Maximin around – you can’t delay a clearance or a pass away from danger.

Yan Valery was the culprit this time, and the way he gave away the winner was perhaps a sign of rustiness after a long time out, but will certainly learn from it.