After a harrowing 9-0 defeat at home by Leicester in October 2019, Ralph Hasenhuttl was the bookies’ favourite to be the first manager sacked last season – just two months into his first full campaign as Southampton boss.
Fans of the club took to Twitter after the worst defeat in their team’s history to express their feelings of anguish towards their man in charge. To many people’s surprise, the Southampton board kept faith in the Austrian and stuck by him, even while they sat in 18th place and with the the worst goal difference in the league. However, the 53-year-old was under no illusions that changes were needed.
Hassenhuttl completely redesigned his squad following the shocking result, changing starting personnel and formation as he looked to maintain Southampton’s status as a Premier League team.
Star striker Danny Ings had already chipped in with seven goals in 10 matches, so it was clear that problems weren’t in the final third but in defence. As a result, an entire reshuffling of the defence was in order as was a change of goalkeeper with Angus Gunn making way for Alex McCarthy.
Late November and early December saw an improvement from the Saints as they recorded their first back-to-back wins of the season; beating both Watford and Norwich at home 2-1.
A month later Hasenhuttl was getting accustomed to securing back-to-back victories – this time coming via a 3-1 win at Aston Villa before a comfortable Boxing Day triumph at Chelsea.
A draw at home to Crystal Palace and a 1-0 win over Tottenham on New Year’s Day saw Southampton enjoy a four-game unbeaten run going into their reverse league fixture at Leicester City next. Any lingering sense of that humiliating 9-0 drubbing wasn’t evident as Southampton went into the game with a much different mentality. And to emphasise the already brilliant turnaround from Hasenhuttl his side walked away from the King Power Stadium with all three points, courtesy of a 2-1 win. It was a magnificent turnaround from a man many Saints supporters wanted gone, but the board’s faith in him proved to be one of the decisions of their season.
The coronavirus pandemic put a halt to all football, giving players and staff a few months rest. Saints restarted Premier League action with eight games remaining – where they impressively won five, and only losing once. A 1-0 win against Man City was a highlight of the season for all Saints fans, even if they couldn’t be at St Mary’s to see it live.
Hasenhuttl will have to give a heap of credit to his No 9 Ings, who ended the season with 21 goals – 41 per cent of Southampton’s tally all season.
Fast forward to this season and Southampton sat in seventh after six matches following their 2-0 win at home to Everton on October 25th. Hasenhuttl’s signings have slotted straight into his system with young full-back Kyle Walker-Peters and former Birmingham striker Che Adams now being first-team regulars.
A year on from one of the darkest days in the club’s history, the light continues to shine bright on Ralph’s revolution on the south coast.
By Harry Yeadon
