Hasenhüttl on Sheffield United showdown
Ralph Hasenhüttl is pleased to see his injury troubles beginning to ease, as he prepares for Saturday's trip to face a Sheffield United team that he expects to fight for everything.
The Saints boss welcomed Kyle Walker-Peters, Ibrahima Diallo and Takumi Minamino back to training this week, following their various injury absences, while Moussa Djenepo, who sustained a knock on Monday at Everton, was also able to take part in the team's sessions.
Hasenhüttl is not yet completely clear how many of those will be available for the visit to Bramall Lane, but, with right-back and central midfield two areas where players have featured out of position in recent matches, the prospect of enforcements returning in each of those is a positive one for him.
"We have a few players back," he said. "I don't know if everyone is available for the weekend, but it's good to have them back in training. That's important.
"It's not ideal when you play some players out of position, but you have to in football. You have to be flexible. We are in some parts not flexible enough I think, but it helps definitely when you have a few players back and they are used to playing in these positions.
"But this was not the reason why we didn't win games in the past. I think we had some other issues and we worked on these margins to find the way back against a team at the weekend who will fight for everything."
While Sheffield United may be bottom of the table heading into this game, they are also coming off an impressive 1-0 win over Aston Villa in midweek, having played the final 30 minutes with ten men, so Hasenhüttl is conscious of the threat they could pose.
"When you look at the game on Wednesday, against Villa, to win at home with one man down for 30 minutes I think shows you everything, how tough it will be there to win," he said.
"We know this, it's a Premier League game and it's every time difficult, and for us even more when we haven't won since a few games and this is the reason why we are very warned what we have to expect there, and the players they accept this and will fight for the win.
"It would be good when we have again not a lot of chances that we give them. In the last game I think they had a few chances from set-pieces, but in the game there were not massive chances against us.
"Still, pay attention of an aggressive opponent who is attacking early, and finding for ourselves the way through the lines to create chances, and create a few more than in the past."
