Although Southampton went down to a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl can certainly take plenty of positives from the performance given how the players stepped up and battled.
Walking out without at least a point following the two stunning goals from Yan Valery and James Ward-Prowse actually says more about the referee and his decision making than it does our own performance.
With 20-year-old Valery opening the scoring in the game as he notched his first professional goal for the club, he was always going to take significant praise post game and our Austrian gaffer was happy to do just that as he spoke to saintsfc.
“That’s something you demand from a young player. He gets the trust from us and then I want to see a brave player who is believing in himself and Yan made a fantastic development until now. Defensively he is better now and also offensively that’s exactly the way we want to go. I’m very happy for him that he scored for the first time, it was a fantastic goal and to shoot like this at Old Trafford shows how confident he is.”
Having made his debut back at the end of November in the EFL Cup draw with Leicester City, Valery has largely made the fullback spot his own under Hasenhuttl and he now boasts 14 starting appearances to his name, with two further showings from the substitutes bench (ignoring the Under 23 action in the EFL Trophy competition.
The young lad has plenty of things still to work on, but he’s quickly established himself as one of the bright sparks of another disappointing year for the club.
Reacting to his effort himself following the game, Valery said.
“I was really proud of it. At first I thought he would save it! After I saw it went in, I thought ‘that’s mad!’ I was just hoping that would help us get three points, or at least one point.”
