Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl wants a new right-back in the January transfer window, according to The Mirror via HITC.
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The Austrian also wants to bring in a new ‘top quality’ centre-back to bolster the Saints’ faltering defence in the winter window.
No team in the Premier League has conceded more than Southampton’s 29, nine of which came in the abysmal 9-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester at St. Mary’s.
As a result, it surely comes as no surprise that the former RB Leipzig boss wants to sure up a defence that has left Southampton 19th, just one point off the bottom of the table.
At right-back, Portuguese international Cedric is out of favour at the club, making only six appearances thus far this season and was slammed by Chris Sutton recently for comments he made suggesting he was keen to leave the Hampshire side, so the arrival of a new right-back would surely send the veteran packing in 2020.
Youngster Yan Valery has enjoyed more first-team football but the problems remain in defence with the likes of Jannik Vestergaard, Jack Stephens and Maya Yoshida struggling to convince. In fact, Sky pundit Jamie Carragher labelled those who played in last month’s 9-0 loss to Leicester City a ‘disgrace’, with all of the aforementioned names featuring.
Whatever the defensive combination, they’ve not been able to stop conceding goals.
Even the goalkeeper has been changed, with Angus Gunn giving way to Alex McCarthy in recent weeks.
With that in mind, arrivals on the south coast look likely as the club needs an upturn in form or they’re heading back to the Championship with a whimper. Thankfully, those behind the scenes at the club look to be trying to act on the problems.
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