Hasenhuttl takes brunt of blame for Saints’ capitulation

Ralph Hasenhuttl has apologised to Saints supporters after taking full responsibility for his side’s embarrassing showing in Friday’s 9-0 defeat to Leicester. Hasenhuttl saw Leicester run amok at St Mary’s after Ryan Bertrand became the first Premier League player to be sent off by VAR because of a reckless challenge on Ayoze Perez in the build-up to Ben Chilwell’s 12th-minute opening goal.
His side conceded goals at regular intervals with both Perez and Jamie Vardy bagging hat-tricks as Leicester inflicted Southampton’s heaviest defeat since the club was founded in 1885, surpassing a trio of 8-0 losses, the most recent of which came at Everton in 1971.
The final scoreline, secured after Vardy’s 90th-minute penalty, equals the biggest-ever Premier League win, a 9-0 success for Manchester United against Ipswich in 1994-95, and sets a new record for the most convincing away success in the English top flight.
Hasenhuttl refused to take the easy way out and blame the early red card for his side’s capitulation and insisted he was willing to take the brunt of the criticism.
He told Sky Sports: “I take 100 per cent responsibility for this result today and it was no performance from my team this cannot happen in this way. The best thing in the stadium – besides the opposition – were the crowd who stayed in the stadium. How they act is more than we deserve, and I apologise for this no performance today.
The 52-year-old nodded his agreement with Nathan Redmond’s instant post-match assessment that the team performance had been “embarrassing”. “Not easy [to recover] but we have to stand up again and show a different face.”
Unfortunately for the Austrian, Hasenhuttl’s team now face daunting back-to-back games at Manchester City in the Carabao Cup and Premier League.
He says he must wait to discover the psychological impact of the record drubbing on his squad, but Bertrand won’t be available for the next three games after receiving his marching orders for a studs-up over-the-ball tackle that made contact with Perez’s shin.