Southampton: Hasenhuttl refuses to blame defensive line for Spurs loss

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl refused to blame his side’s high defensive line for their heavy 5-2 loss to Spurs on Sunday.

Saints capitulated after a strong first-half showing and were torn apart by clever attacking play by Spurs, with four goals from Son Hueng-Min and one from Harry Kane seeing off a Danny Ings brace.

Despite Spurs breaking through his defence at will after half-time, Hasenhuttl chose to blame the intensity of his whole team rather than the setup of the backline.

Speaking to the media post-match, he said:

"“No. The high line was not a problem. We had more chances, we were better in the game so it was not really a problem for us.“We did not put enough pressure on the ball. We were too naive and I don’t think we can play much better than we have with this team at the moment. It is not possible.”"

What Hasenhuttl is explaining is that it was the pressing of the Spurs man in possession that was not good enough and allowed the visiting players to pick the passes that they wanted. Part of the problem for sure, but surely not the whole issue.

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The movement of the Spurs attack – Kane and Son in particular – caused shifts in the Saints defence and create gaps to exploit. The defence did need to be dropped deeper to avoid this happening repeatedly throughout the afternoon and Hasenhuttl may rue his decision not to tweak things when his side started losing control.

The lack of pressing that Hasenhuttl saw in the second-half perhaps goes to show that Saints still need time before they get fully up to speed once again.

Their workrate last season became relentless once games got underway after the Coronavirus suspension and the players were able to press throughout a full 90 minutes, but Saints running out of steam in the second period here suggests that fitness levels are not quite there yet.

There were, of course, some positives for Saints before Spurs hit their stride.

An excellently worked goal to open the scoring showed that Saints can still create the chances that they need for the likes of Danny Ings and Che Adams to put away. Moussa Djenepo was also the liveliest in a red and white shirt and took his chance to impress with Nathan Redmond injured.

Being out of the Carabao Cup has now handed Saints a free week to work on things ahead of trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley next Saturday.