Ralph Hasenhüttl, hardly a name that rolls off the tongue or indeed a name that many FPL managers are likely to be familiar with. The man tasked with turning around Southampton’s fortunes comes in off the back of successful managerial spells in Germany with Ingolstadt and more recently Leipzig. Hasenhüttl himself may not be a household name in the Premier League but some of his former players are more well known on these shores with Pascal Groß, Naby Keïta, Elias Kachunga, Ademola Lookman and last season’s bench fodder extraordinaire Collin Quaner all having featured under the Austrian.
When Hasenhüttl took over at Ingolstadt during the 13/14 season the club sat bottom of the table with just 1 clean sheet in their opening 10 matches. He guided them to a 10th place finish and in the 24 league games he oversaw that year they kept an impressive 13 clean sheets. The following season they kept 15 clean sheets in 34 league games and were promoted to the Bundesliga. Despite a step up in quality Hasenhüttl’s side still managed 10 clean sheets in 34 league games during his final season at the club. An improvement in Southampton’s defensive solidity would make some of their budget defenders appealing and if last season’s bench boost favourite Jan Bednarek could force his way into the side he’d surely become a must have priced at just 3.9m. Hasenhüttl’s time at RB Leipzig was less defensively solid than at Ingolstadt recording 18 clean sheets in 83 games and coming in on the wrong side of 7-6, 6-5 and 5-4 scorelines.
Hasenhüttl has predominantly employed a 4-4-2 formation throughout his managerial career. A continuation of this at Southampton would definitely be of interest to FPL managers with all 5 of their FPL forwards priced at 5.6m or below. Regular minutes for any of them would be significant with Long (48), Austin (33), Ings (18) and Gabbiadini (10) all having proved they can score goals at Premier League level. During his stint at RB Leipzig the team scored 4 or more goals on 13 separate occasions.
Moving to a Southampton player now would be a punt at best but with Cardiff, Huddersfield and West Ham in their next 4 it might pay to gamble on Hasenhüttl having an instant revitalising impact on the Saints. Otherwise waiting and assessing ahead of 4 home games out of 6 against Everton, Palace, Cardiff and Fulham in mid January might be the sensible option.
All stats from transfermarkt.com