Southampton defender Jannik Vestergaard, who has been linked with a move away from the club, has said that Saturdays 1-0 win against Burnley has given the Saints “something to build on.”
The Danish international, who starred on Saturday in a Saints back four that kept their first clean sheet since July, says that the win is an “important one” to kick-start Southampton’s season.
The win was Southampton’s first of the season and they go up against winless West Bromwich Albion next.
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“Room for improvement”
Southampton looked solid throughout at Turf Moor and were hailed by their manager Ralph Hasenhuttl for being “hardworking.”
Che Adams and Danny Ings, who combined for the only goal of the game, looked a real threat up front and the back line looked to deal with Burnley’s attack relatively easily.
Vestergaard, however, believes that although the victory was a hard fought one, there is still plenty of room to improve for Southampton:
“I’m happy with the win,” he said. “It was a hard fought one and I think we did well as a unit defending the threats that Burnley produce.
“I think we have room for improvement and could control the game better. We could have killed the game during the second half when the spaces opened up for counter attacks.
"All-in-all, I’m happy with the win which is an important one starting a new season and now we can build from here.”
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“Team Performance”
One of the key aspects that appeared to be missing in the first two games of Southampton’s season, and especially in the second half of the Spurs game where they shipped four goals, was the high press that worked so well for them at the back end of last season, as well as the ability to defend as a team.
They were being caught too far up the pitch far too often against Spurs, which allowed Heung-Min Son to capitalise and help himself to four goals.
Jannik Vestergaard felt as though Southampton defended as a team on Saturday, which really helped him and his fellow defenders out:
“It’s important that everyone joins in and when you see Ingsy – who has played his heart out for all 90 minutes - blocking crosses towards the end, that’s what you need.
“When that happens your job is that much easier to defend the box when crosses are played under pressure.
“When people are feeling the breath down their necks all the time, it’s even more difficult to put in a perfect ball and this helped us massively. It was a team performance.”
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“Hopefully many more (appearances) to come”
Vestergaard has been linked with a move away from the club all summer, with West Ham seemingly being the lead contenders for his signature.
But Saturdays performance will make Southampton think twice about selling him and may have adhered him to the fans a bit more.
Nothing is certain but Vestergaard says he is very happy at Southampton at the moment:
“I’m happy with my performances of late, especially post lockdown. I think I’m in a good place.
“I enjoy playing for this team and hopefully there will be many more [appearances] in the future.”