I'll admit that Hasenhuttl looks like the evil headmaster of an all-boys school in a 90s movie. Perhaps that isn't the worst thing at the moment.
Ralph's job will be finding an edge that we are missing. Puel & MP2 had us defensively sound relatively speaking but utterly barren going forward. Hughes has us creative (but fruitless) going forwards and utterly shambolic in defence. No mean task to try and find a balance between those states.
I honestly like our midfield and view it as one of our strengths. JWP, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Armstrong... They all have their pluses and minuses but any of them can be effective used properly and if motivated. We've always had a decent midfield. It's why I didn't hate Puel like everyone else. He played a diamond 4 and put the center mids on the pitch. We had a hard time scoring, but we couldn't score anyway. It's frustrating to me that our midfield most weeks ends up not so good. We play in a formation that often only utilizes two, and without clearly defined roles. . Romeu is too slow to get forward on attacks. JWP is too small and s little too slow on defense. Lemina can do it all but sometimes plays without purpose. Hojbjerg needs to keep his head in the game better. But if we're going to play an aggressive press with a battling midfield JWP is the perfect player to be the pivot on transition from defense to attack. He's a smart player and can pass. Also always puts in a lot if effort that will be if good use confusing and harassing defenders on their end whereas he's not that helpful in and around our own goal. Back in the day when we had Cork, Scheiderlin, Davis and Wanyama, I felt it was the same. all of them were a bit old school. None of them was really a modern day creative player but they made it difficult to sit on the ball or attack us through the middle. And they could all keep the ball moving even if they weren't dribbling wizards .
We have to be happy in the moment. We can worry about tomorrow when it comes 1 We’ve got a very promising young manager who’s been touted for bigger clubs (Arsenal in 2016) 2 Hopefully he can improve us a little before Jan and enough to be safe after that 3 If he’s any good and backed by the board then we’ve got 2 1/2 years
I suspect we would have done better under Puel, but, without experiencing the last season and a half, we wouldn't know it....and would be moaning for a change and excitement. Be careful what you wish for.
It was reasonable to offer Hughes the job in the 'feel good' glow of avoiding relegation...no doubt considered safe if not exciting. If he'd had an ounce of luck, he'd still be here. In answer to the question why didn't we go for Ralph in the summer....he had only just left Leipzig and may not have been interested in us then, but a few months twiddling his thumbs may have concentrated his mind. Of course it is also possible that he had seen us from afar and knew we were in a totally false position and he thought, 'I could do wonders with a bunch of genius players like that.' Let's go with that.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/southamptons-new-boss-swerves-players-13694285 Ralph met coaching staff yesterday but not the players to avoid pre-match disturbance. Said to be clear on what he wants with no grey areas.
