Under-fire boss Hughes backing his shot-shy flops
MARK HUGHES has told his Southampton flops keeping a calm head is the key to turning round their season.
The Welshman will face a battle to hold on to his job as manager if Saints lose at fellow strugglers Fulham today.
But Hughes said: “All the negative stats come out and it is what it is. It becomes predictable and you know how it works.
“There is nothing I’ve seen in this job that fazes me any more. We know that we aren’t a million miles away from what we need to do.
“We are calm which is key. There is no need to get panicked because we do a lot of good things within the group. You don’t get
too giddy when you are doing well and you don’t get too down when things aren’t going your way.
“The team gets confidence and support from that. We have given them the knowledge they need going into the games.
“They will never say they are lacking in that area.”
Fulham have the worst defensive record in the Premier League, conceding 31 goals in their first 12 games.
But Hughes expects them to be a lot more resolute with new manager Claudio Ranieri in charge.
Drills
“Claudio is Italian and you can imagine the work he has been doing. He has a good defensive group there,” he added. Hughes has been giving finishing practice to his goal-shy squad, who have managed just eight goals this season.
Winger Nathan Redmond hasn’t scored this season and netted only once in the last campaign.
He said: “We have done a lot of finishing drills to gain confidence in front of goal and also a lot of crossing drills.
“I know it’s not rocket science but creating chances and scoring goals is probably the hardest thing.
“It has not been too bad in training but it can come to a game and you will get five chances and might score one. In training you would probably score all five.
“It’s difficult in front of
40,000 people every week but that’s the nature of the job.”