Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl was pleased with the chances his side created in their behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly against Swansea City on Saturday at St Mary’s.
With the encounter split into four 30-minute quarters, Saints steamrollered their way to a 7-1 victory, with goals from Danny Ings 2, James Ward-Prowse 2, Ché Adams, Nathan Redmond and Ryan Bertrand.
Altering his starting eleven at the midway point of the friendly, Hasenhüttl was left pleased with his side’s start to pre-season on the pitch.
“Our goal is to be more flexible when we’re on the offensive and come more often into interesting situations around the box, and we played quite well in the first game.
ralph hasenhüttl
It was really, really amazing to see how many chances we created and we could’ve scored more.
“We are still trying to develop our game and it was better than what we saw last season, but it’s clear it’s only a friendly against a Championship team.
“In the first half we showed some good movements and good new items we are working on.”
With two weeks until the 2020/21 Premier League season starts, many of the squad will now depart on international duty, leaving the Saints boss with mixed emotions.
“It’s not perfect as this is the only time of the year you can directly work with the team, but the good thing is last season was not so long ago, so it’s not as difficult and for everybody it’s the same.
“We have a few internationals that are gone next week and it’s not perfect, but we must handle it.
“So far we have had two good weeks to work on topics we had and now we have a smaller group. Even with a smaller group we have enough work to do and hopefully we’ll be prepared for the game [against Crystal Palace]."
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