EPL: Southampton’s saviour? Just call me Mr Rabbit Hutch

Ralph Hasenhuttl breezed into English football yesterday, referencing the Titanic and washing machines.

New Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl meets and greets at Wembley. Picture: Getty Images

Ralph Hasenhuttl breezed into English soccer yesterday, referenced the Titanic and washing machines and then declared he did not want to be known as the “Klopp of the Alps”.

“I want to put my footprints in the snow,” the new Southampton manager said. “It is my goal to get my name known here in the Premier League.”

The former RB Leipzig manager explained happily that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had been confused in trying to translate his old friend’s surname to journalists. “It is a small hut for rabbits,” he clarified. Already Southampton fans may be thinking this sounds more fun than the Mark Hughes era.

The Austrian, whose previous forays into British soccer comprise a two-week trial with Chelsea under Glenn Hoddle and training with Bolton Wanderers, stated what lies ahead for a team in the relegation zone.

“You can expect a very passionate kind of football with 11 characters on the field who know exactly what to do,” he said. “After the match, even if we don’t win, I am 100 per cent sure they (the fans) will appreciate what they have seen.”

However, he did add one colourful caveat: “If you want guarantees, buy a washing machine.”

Southampton have been on repeat spin cycle since Ronald Koeman departed in June 2016, but Hasenhuttl looks like a coup. He led Leipzig to second in the Bundesliga in 2017 and sixth last season, but if he has been given the “Klopp of the Alps” moniker he clearly does not relish it.

“I have heard about it,” he said of the nickname. “I don’t like it much. I want to be my own character. I know him, although his ­English is maybe better than his German now.”

He may be his own man but the 51-year-old from Graz does share similarities with Klopp.

“We were sitting in football school together and took our Pro Licence together,” he said during his first media address. “I was ­always a friend from his football.

“He has a very proactive way of play and he set marks in Germany with his kind of football, and that really influenced my style. When I can do it similar or nearly the same it would be fantastic for me, but it is too far away.

“We have other problems at the moment. Big problems. We have to face them and we will.”

There had been no contact with Arsenal when he was linked with that job and he sounded like a man with a clear world view.

What had he thought when Southampton expressed an interest in him?

“I was thinking about the ­Titanic leaving here,” he said. “I hope I don’t hit the first iceberg waiting for me.”

Whether he sinks or swims, Hasenhuttl does have form in reviving ailing clubs. He did so at Aalen in the German third tier and at FC Ingolstadt, who were rock bottom of Bundesliga 2 when he took over five years ago.

He was promoted at both but just as telling was his methodology. A hard-pressing, attacking style on the pitch was allied to a knack of winning over fans off it.

A German journalist yesterday explained that in his first days at Ingolstadt, a tiny club, Hasenhuttl went out of his way to meet fans. “He shook hands with almost all of them.” Within two years they had been promoted to the top flight for the first time.

Hasenhuttl was available after he left Leipzig in May after contract issues but grew bored.

“I have had enough of the mountains in the last six months,” he said. “I was walking around a lot and I needed this time to get my batteries charged up again. Now it doesn’t matter if I don’t see the mountains for two and a half years.”

This was some entrance to the Premier League. When Klopp ­arrived in Britain, he anointed himself the “Normal One” and promised full-throttle soccer. Southampton, spared the bottom of the table only on goal difference after Wednesday’s defeat by Tottenham Hotspur, can expect the same.

It was notable that Hasenhuttl ignored the opportunity to lavish praise on the way his new club finished at Wembley and instead ­offered some stark pragmatism.

“When you have this character in the first 20 minutes (then) you show what you can do,” he said.

“I saw interesting mistakes. The team need a match plan that fits them and to find a perfect formation.

“It takes flexibility — 4-2-2-2 is my preferred system but also 4-3-3 and 3-4-3. The main goal is to be proactive and try to press very early. I want to bring them to their limits.”

He pledged to work Southampton tirelessly until next month, by which time he will know whether reinforcements are needed.

“If someone says it is it too much running or work they will fall very quick. That’s how I want to work to January and that’s when we look,” he said.

He says he knows the Premier League very well and has been cramming up on Southampton. He met the players for the first time yesterday and talked of evening training sessions and re-energising the production line from the academy.

“In history there were a lot coming from there and that’s the goal for the future. This step is not the easiest one but I never want easy in my life. I am not afraid of anything.”

The Times