PRESS GANG
Alex McCarthy lifts the lid on Hasenhuttl’s attacking blueprint to save Saints from the drop
RALPH HASENHUTTL is creating quite a stir.
The Austrian has a reputation for improving players, but at Southampton he has his work cut out first to save them from relegation. After a rigorous first week, everyone is buying into the manager’s intensive methods. He cancelled a day off and no one minded.
On the training ground, there are longer, comprehensive sessions with more sprints and greater urgency, and players are told exactly what to do with and without the ball.
‘ I wouldn’t say he’s loud and a ggressive but he’s got t hat authority,’ says Alex McCarthy, the Southampton and England goalkeeper. ‘Everyone respects him.
‘He does know how to get the best out of the players. The longer the season goes on, everyone will notice a big difference within the squad.’
After defeat at Cardiff, Hasenhuttl has had a week with his players ahead of today’s visit of Arsenal. As he tries to instil confidence and make Southampton hard to beat again, Hasenhuttl’s video analysis sessions use footage from training and his time from RB Leipzig to illustrate his ideas.
‘He’s gone through the way they press, what they do when they have got the ball, without the ball, everything. Everything’s clear and we all understand what we are doing and reading off the same page,’ McCarthy says.
At 8am, McCarthy is the first player to arrive at the club’s Staplewood complex. ‘ I’m a morning person,’ he says. He used to swim, but that gave him back issues, so he works on an exercise bike or with the club physio. The rest of the squad will trickle in from 9.30. And then the hard work starts.
‘ Everyone’s just pressing, pressing, pressing, once you lose the ball. And when we regain the ball, i nstead of turning round and playing it back, having that confidence to play forward and bring everyone up the pitch so we’re a lot more attacking.’
‘ The thing with the boys pressing a lot higher and with more intensity, hopefully I’ll have a little bit less work to do!’ McCarthy laughs.
At 6ft 4in, McCarthy is a commanding presence. An excellent shot-stopper, he is not afraid to let his team- mates hear his voice. He’s also comfortable with the ball at his feet, which is encouraged by Hasenhuttl.
‘He wants me to keep a higher line. Behind the back four, five, whatever he decides to play, so that I can sweep up everything and just dominate in areas.’
McCarthy is one of 12 Southampton players to have met Hasenhuttl for a one-on-one conversation. The manager will meet the rest of his squad next week. ‘He was asking about the clubs I’ve been at before. He was asking about them and coming here. I said to him this is the first proper club where I’ve felt I’ve been at home.’
McCarthy has played in all four divisions, joining Southampton in 2016. He is already serving under his fourth manager. After the reigns of Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes, Hasenhuttl’s appointment is meant to bring a return to the Southamp- ton Way, a model which saw the club finish in the top eight for four consecutive seasons from 2014.
‘With this manager and the way he wants to play, that’s what you will see out there. He likes to play attractive football — high pressing and intensive.’
It is been a memorable 12 months for McCarthy. He usurped Fraser Forster to become Southampton’s No 1 on December 30 last year. He marked his first Premier League appearance for the club with a clean sheet at Manchester United.
Named the club’s player of the year, McCarthy was instrumental in a successful survival battle. He signed a four- year deal in June, and has kepthis place in the side despite the £12million arrival of Angus Gunn, the club’s third English keeper.
‘As long as I keep performing the way I am and doing, I don’t worry about anything else,’ he said.
McCarthy is the latest in a line of Southampton goalkeepers who have been capped by England. The trend began in 1898 with Jack Robinson, but Peter Shilton, Tim Flowers and team- mate Forster continued the tradition.
After first being named in an England squad in 2013, McCarthy finally earned his first cap when coming on as a second-half substitute in November’s 3-0 win against the United States.
He speaks in glowing terms of manager Gareth Southgate. ‘He’s been brilliant for me,’ McCarthy says. ‘To get my cap last month that was an unbelievable feeling. I’ve waited a long time for that.’
For now, Hasenhuttl has focused his mind on Southampton and survival. ‘He has not left any stone unturned. He’s very thorough,’ McCarthy says. ‘All the lads have bought into it straight away. We all want to change the situation we are in and pick up as much points as we can until the end of the season. We will do whatever it takes.’