The Athletic’s Dan Sheldon has claimed that Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl gave Jan Bednarek a ‘nudge underneath the bus’ after their recent Premier League match.
Over the weekend, the Saints fell to a resounding 3-0 away loss at the hands of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. For the first goal of the game, Alexandre Lacazette found himself in plenty of space when finishing from Bukayo Saka’s cross.
According to Sheldon, the Saints manager was not happy at all about this when speaking in the aftermath of the loss. The journalist compared Hasenhuttl’s comments to those which he recently made about goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.
Should Jan Bednarek be dropped from the Southampton team?
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The Southampton ‘keeper had played with an undeclared injury, costing his team points. This prompted his boss to question his professionalism, saying: “This is for me not acceptable.”
Speaking on the Total Saints podcast, Sheldon made his own claim, saying: “After the game, Ralph kind of intimated that Bednarek was miles out from position for the first goal and that he should have been there dealing with the finish.
“So I guess if it was Alex’s turn last week, it was Bednarek’s turn this week to get a gentle nudge underneath the bus.”
TIF Thoughts on Jan Bednarek and Southampton…
The defeat now means Southampton have picked up 16 points from 16 games. This kind of form will mean Saints will likely be down towards the bottom of the table at the end of the season, fighting to avoid relegation.
Up to this point in the campaign, Bednarek has played in all but four of his team’s Premier League matches, so it appears his form clearly hasn’t been good enough to help his side excel in any major way.
His manager certainly didn’t seem very happy with his latest display. Hs full quotes were: “We had a scene where Jan Bednarek was not defending out [high]. Five minutes before he did and had a ball win on that side, this time he didn’t.
“This is really frustrating because until that moment we played a good game.”
It’s easy to understand why the Saints boss has that anger. Though, perhaps the players would be performing with a little more confidence if their manager didn’t keep putting them ‘underneath the bus’ with as much frequency.
In other news: ‘It’s huge for the future of Southampton’ – Sheldon drops big Saints claim