'We want to be disgusting to play against' | Exclusive: Ralph Hasenhuttl with Martin Keown

Strong words from Pierre and interesting stuff from Ralph.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...Ralph-Hasenhuttls-Southampton-revolution.html

 

He’s just taken another piece of my heart.

THe first thing that I thought after reading that was how little fans really understand about the level of detail in the modern game. It is incredible.

 

Disgusting, that'll do pig, that'll do.

MATCH DAY!

 

Love Ralph

 

After reading this, I am really pumped for this season!

 

Great article. This guy makes everything sound so exciting. We are going to be DISGUSTING to play against! .

God I love how that sounds. Hope it looks just as good.

 

Can someone copy and paste please

 

We are Southampton,
We are disgusting.

We are disgusting, we are disgusting,
We are Southampton,
We are disgusting.

 

We are in the picture postcard town of Schruns, nestled in the Austrian Alps, and Ralph Hasenhuttl is about to put his Southamptonplayers through their paces.

Perched in a grandstand above the training pitch, it is impossible not to drink in the idyllic surroundings. Nearby, a ski-jumper takes flight from a dry slope with a gentle whoosh. In the distance, a cable car trundles up a luscious green mountain before disappearing into the clouds.

But it is the pitch itself which has caught Martin Keown's eye. Specifically, the tramlines painted on the surface.

These, we are told, are to help Southampton's coaches track the players' movement when they study footage of the session.

Towering above us is a cameraman in a cherry picker, primed to begin filming. The calm is broken as Hasenhuttl gets to work. The hills are alive with the sound of barked tactical instruction.

Today, he is showing his players how to hunt as a pack or, as he calls it, a 'net'.

The 23 outfield players are set out in a single formation across the pitch and grouped by starting position. Hasenhuttl and his coaches form the opposition defence.

He has the ball and when he passes to his right, that is the signal for Southampton's forwards to pounce. The drills are repeated and refined before the players split into teams for a practice match.

Every press, every tackle, every interception is greeted with enthusiasm by the boss.

Players are barely given a second to make a decision before an opponent is upon them. It is breathless to watch.

After the session, we head to the team hotel to meet the architect of this new-look Southampton when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, the captain, stops for a chat.

'We want to be disgusting to play against,' he quips.

All this leaves Keown eager to learn more about the Ralph revolution…

KEOWN: It was fascinating watching you conduct training. I cannot remember watching a more detailed session. It looked like you were working on moments to press.

HASENHUTTL: Pressing triggers.

KEOWN: What is your trigger?

HASENHUTTL: It can be a long pass. It takes a long time for the ball to reach the next player.

This is the time we can move to the ball, put pressure on the guy who gets it. If we do it together and have the right distances between the players, we have a big chance to win the ball in areas where we can have an overload of players.

KEOWN: I've heard Jurgen Klopp say that winning the ball high up the pitch is better than any No 10.

HASENHUTTL: That's the philosophy I am focusing on. The best playmaker is the ball winner. Statistically, the chance of creating a goal is higher within 10 seconds of winning the ball.

We have four parts of our game: working against the ball; in possession; losing the ball; winning the ball. If you are good in all four parts, you have a good chance of winning.

KEOWN: When you arrived in December, Southampton had won once under Mark Hughes. The players didn't seem to have the right level of understanding.

HASSENHUTTL: It was not an easy situation. For this kind of football you have to be fit, you have to sprint a lot, you have to be tactical. I can say, from these three parts, we didn't really have a lot!

KEOWN: How did you get the players to understand your philosophy?

HASENHUTTL: It was more about showing them videos. That's what we do before every session.

KEOWN: What are you showing them?

HASENHUTTL: Tactical animations. They know exactly where their position is when we are hunting the ball and how to shift, how to attack.

It's more about training here (at this point he taps his head) than on the pitch.

KEOWN: Is there a danger that if you give the players too much information, they lose some of that individual flair or ability to think for themselves?

HASENHUTTL: No, I don't think so. It helps their creativity. If they know exactly where to go, if they win the ball they can show you what they can do. But the game doesn't start when we have the ball. Our game starts when the opponent has the ball.

That this training camp is taking place in Hasenhuttl's native Austria is purely a coincidence, the location chosen primarily for its facilities.

The 51-year-old hails from Graz — some 370 miles east — and honed his coaching style over the border in Germany's regional leagues.

He took Ingolstadt from the depths of the second tier into the Bundesliga before leading RB Leipzig to second place and the Champions League in their maiden top-flight campaign.

'I was very lucky because I started in the fourth league,' he explains. 'In the beginning you can make a few mistakes because you are not in such focus.'

Keown is keen to discover the players and coaches who have been his biggest influence.

KEOWN: Growing up, my idol was Kevin Keegan. Who inspired you?

HASENHUTTL: As a player I had a few idols but that's not really interesting any more. I was a striker and focusing on guys like Marco van Basten but as a coach I want to make my own footsteps.

I was always a little bit compared to Jurgen because my core of working is working against the ball.

Pep Guardiola has a fantastic play against the ball. They (Manchester City) are often reduced to ball possession but nobody sees that he has a very good game against the ball.

Everybody tries to go his own way and I am very convinced about what we are doing.

KEOWN: How do you adapt to face a team like City?

HASENHUTTL: We have four different shapes. We can always switch very quickly.

Last year in a lot of games we started with 4-2-2-2 and switched to 5-2-3. The basics in every shape are the same.

Last year against Bournemouth we changed the shape three times. Their manager (Eddie Howe) is very smart and tries to change like I do. Tactically, it was a very demanding game. But that's modern football.

KEOWN: Did you watch much of Ajax last year? They are very interesting with their wide players, the way they overload on one side and then come central. Did you look at that?

HASENHUTTL: As you can imagine we are looking at nearly every game around the world.

If you stop learning as a coach and as a manager you will not be successful. I have never stopped learning, watching, developing.

KEOWN: You lost your first game to Cardiff. Has the Premier League been as tough as you expected?

HASENHUTTL: Harder. After that first game, I knew it would be difficult. After the second game, when we won against Arsenal, I knew we could make it.

We made a nearly perfect game — fantastic pressing at the right moment, defending together — but we still could have lost.

KEOWN: How did you boost the players' confidence?

HASENHUTTL: At first I had to be clear that I could do this job in English.

KEOWN: Your English is excellent! Where did you learn?

HASENHUTTL: In school… but don't tell my English teacher that I'm now the manager of the Premier League club. He would think, 'That's not possible!'

If you are convinced you can develop a team then you have to be brave and do it in English. The players understood quickly what I wanted to say.

Two players who swiftly took on board Hasenhuttl's teachings were Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse. Both men struggled for form under Hughes before ending the campaign in contention for the England squad.

KEOWN: Redmond and Ward-Prowse were unrecognisable after you arrived.

HASENHUTTL: With Reddy, it was not very difficult to develop him. He has fantastic quality one against one, but you have to bring him into a position where he can score.

KEOWN: There was one moment today where he gave the ball away because he took too long. He was maybe thinking about going on a run but he should pass it. You said nothing. How do you stop yourself from intervening?

HASENHUTTL: I am very critical with him always. Every interception I didn't make today, you can be sure they get told when I see the videos. And they know that.

I cannot concentrate on everything. That's the reason we film every session. But I don't care a lot about wrong decision making. I care more about if he is not part of our net, or if he loses the ball and stands still. It drives me mad and then I drive the players mad!

KEOWN: How did you develop Ward-Prowse?

HASENHUTTL: With Prowsey, he is a fantastic football player but against the ball he was not sharp enough.

He is physically unbelievably good. He can play three games a week, 90 minutes, without a problem.

I am very happy there were no rumours about him this summer. A player like him, for a top-six club in England, is always interesting.

KEOWN: What have you made of the standard of young English players since you have arrived?

HASENHUTTL: The league is the best in the world. If you have a chance as a young English player to play in this league, it should be normal that you become one of the best players in the world.

Look at how high the quality is in this league. I call it Champions League for the whole year. In our club, the English player has a big chance to play. This is our Southampton way. It is without alternative because we don't have big money to buy big stars. I see international Under-21 games and see how many good English players there are.

Young Phil Foden, for example, is an unbelievable player. You don't have to worry about English football right now.

KEOWN: You played Yan Valery and Michael Obafemi last season. You seem happy to give young players a chance.

HASENHUTTL: I can trust them in the big games. They have less stress than the experienced players because they have nothing to lose. Working with young players is like a small flower. Give it water, take care of it and it can be beautiful.

That week in the mountains was just the ticket. Southampton travel to Burnley this afternoon off the back of an unbeaten pre-season.

After last season's narrow escape from relegation, a top-half finish has to be the goal.

KEOWN: You've got Burnley away up first, who only finished one place above you. I've looked at your first six games and every other match is winnable.

HASENHUTTL: If you look at the Premier League, you ask, 'Where do I get points… f***!' Or you can say, 'Why not?' Liverpool at home we played a fantastic game. It was 1-1 until the 80th minute.

KEOWN: Arsene Wenger used to have a flipchart with the season's objectives. Have you written down yours? I want to be covering you in the FA Cup final.

HASENHUTTL: I hope so! We have daily targets. We want to improve our game and work on the fundamentals. Maybe we can finish 10th — that would be a big, big success — but we don't want to carry a backpack with stones.

Keep the targets more visible because then you can work on it. Then the big targets will come our way. That's my philosophy.

 

Particularly like this bit “I don’t care too much about wrong decisions, I care...if [a player] loses the ball and stands still”.

In other words, keep taking risks, and if you give the ball away, get it back.

 

Our Ralph really is very impressive, whenever I see or read about him I think he's the sort of manager you would run through walls for?
Can you imagine Mark Hughes or a couple of his predecessors inspiring players and taking them to the next level?

 

Something some fans need to remember

 

Rio Ferdinand and Robbie savage tipping us for relegation.

 

They can both **** off then, can’t they?

 

Impossible to not be impressed by that article, and by Ralph.

Only time will tell whether we have yet given him tools to do the job, but I'm in little doubt that he's the right guy for us.

 

We can get excited if we win, but we should resist planning a suicide mission to Mexico if we lose. We are looking more like ourselves and are no doubt going in the right direction so must avoid despondency after one game. It's a long season.

 

Nah, bring it on say I
I’d rather we were under estimated than over estimated

 

That seems like more detail than I would have expected ...

... just how much planning have you done?

 

You clearly weren’t on the forum a few years back..,. We nearly booked the tickets

 

And bought serapes.