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Southampton boss Russell Martin has had his say on the mounting pressure his Manchester United counterpart Erik ten Hag is under, as the two sides prepare to meet on Saturday.
United will be travelling to St Mary’s to take on Southampton, on the back of two consecutive Premier League defeats.
The Red Devils’ most recent loss in particular – against Liverpool just before the international break – left a lot to be desired.
Since then, questions have been asked of Ten Hag and whether he is the right man for the job, after a summer in which he narrowly kept his job.
Ahead of the match, Martin spoke to reporters and was asked about the difficult period Ten Hag currently finds himself in and what are his thoughts on the scrutiny the Dutchman is being subjected to.
Martin responded, “I don’t know him and I haven’t come across him I’ve watched a lot of his team recently to analyse them and understand what can hurt us and how we can try and hurt them.”
“I hope to be under that level of scrutiny that he is someday in a job like that. Of course, it has to be the aim.”
“I know he’s working with a guy that I had the pleasure of working with in Jason Wilcox. So he’ll be there supporting him, I’m sure, because he’s a great person. I owe him a lot for giving me the opportunity here and the relationship we had. I’m sure he has a lot of support at that club.”
“They are a team full of top, top talent, really top players that on their day can really hurt anyone. We have to make sure that we approach the game in our way. We want to try and be the team we want to be at home and really bring a performance and a result that we can be proud of.”
Martin was asked what his reaction will be if he happens to meet Wilcox at St Mary’s this weekend.
“I’ll embrace him. Of course, he was brave enough to stick his neck out and give me the job along with the owners. I will always be grateful for that – but it was how he was with us in here as well and the level of respect and care and support.”
“I think the actual belief in what we were doing was because he watched every single day. I’ll always be and will always have a good relationship because of that. I’ll always be grateful to him and he deserves the opportunity he has now in a club like that. He’s a really top operator and it’ll be nice to see him.”
It’s been over two decades since the Saints last defeated United on their home turf. Martin was reminded of this fact when asked about the significance of Saturday’s match and the opportunity to finally get the better of the Red Devils.
The Southampton gaffer remarked, “It’s not about hurting Manchester United. It’s about us trying to win a game and it’s about us trying to kick start our season and get ourselves going. I don’t care what it does to them. I’m not out to go and hurt Manchester United. I understand the sentiment, but I want to win a game of football for us.”
“It feels very much like the Leeds game for us last season. It was an early kick-off on Sky Sports after four defeats in a row. The guys came out with incredible aggression and intensity and put in a performance that really kick-started our season. We didn’t lose for five months after that.”
“That’s probably not going to happen in the Premier League but I hope that we can put in a level of performance that we did that day under big pressure really. I want the guys just to enjoy themselves and be the team that they have been and we want to be. If we do that, I’m really convinced we can get a result.”
The game is set to kick off at 12:30 BST.
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