You’ve got to see them as opportunities

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Southampton come to Burnley tonight with Ralph Hasenhüttl, who was appointed in December 2018, now the third longest serving manager in the Premier League.

During his time at Southampton, he’s seen Burnley do the double over his side and then them do the double over us, but neither can happen this season with the game at St. Mary’s earlier in the season ending in a 2-2 draw.

Embed from Getty ImagesHasenhüttl, asked about the Clarets and in particular the departure of manager Sean Dyche, said he’d noticed some changes. “You could see some differences,” he said. “When a manager is there for such a long time, normally you have a team that is absolutely used to what they have done all the time with a very, very clear philosophy and when someone like him is gone, it’s normal that some things are broken up a little bit and you do things a little bit different.

“I see that they played a little bit more football and tried to use some spaces a bit more. The full backs were a little bit mor offensive in some moments, so a few smaller margins they have changed.

“But the players are still the same and behaviours you could feel are still the same, but some moments they tried to change some things and we will see what happens.”

Embed from Getty ImagesMichael Jackson was pleased with the players in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham, his first game in charge. “I don’t think I gave them the credit they deserved the other day,” he said. “When you watch the game back and take the emotions out of it, you see what’s happened in the game itself and I thought they showed some real good qualities.

“The character you’re after, the work rate, the togetherness and the ability to dig in when you have to, I thought that we showed all of that in spades. That’s the identity of this group, and they showed that they’re willing to fight.”

That was at West Ham, now we’re home, and he has his own memories of that. “I played here against Burnley under the lights in big games when I was at Preston, so I know what it’s like and I know the impact that this group of fans can have. They know their football and I’m sure that they’re with the group.

“You saw with the Everton game earlier this month, their backing and the atmosphere can be really powerful for the lads. We want Turf Moor to be somewhere that’s not nice to come to, and that’s what we need to make it.”

With the Clarets four points behind Everton, we are going to need some big results in the final games. Jackson said: “You’ve got to see them as opportunities and approach them as challenges, because that’s what they are. This group has proven in the past that they’re winning to take stuff on, and that’s the game you play, that’s the world we live in as footballers.”

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