‘What did Eddie Howe say?’ - Ralph Hasenhutt’s frosty final words on Newcastle United defeat

Ralph Hasenhuttl was in a defeatist mood after Southampton lost 4-1 win to Newcastle United on Sunday.

The Saints defence sat deep but was breached on 35 minutes when Miguel Almiron ran through to score his eighth goal of the campaign. Hasenhuttl’s side had a bright spell after half-time but quick-fire doubles from Chris Wood and Joe Willock put United out of sight.

Romain Perraud did net a consolation goal for the home side, however Bruno Guimaraes quickly restored Newcastle’s three-goal advantage to move up to third in the Premier League.

Asked for his verdict on the game, Hasenhuttl immediately responded with “what did my colleague say?” Magpies head coach Eddie Howe admitted his side weren’t at their best in general play but scored four brilliant goals.

Hasenhuttl added: “I think that they have shown where they are and we have shown why we are where we are and it is just the difference. The expected goals were 1.7 vs 1.2 but it’s the same story.

“You can call it luck, you can call it quality, you can call it whatever you want. We can’t score the goals and then they show how they do it. Sixteen to seven shots, five to four on target but the final result is 4-1. That’s it.”

The Saints boss continued: “I think we didn’t have the chances in the first half but we kept them far away from our goal. They also didn’t have a lot. I think as I said we had 16 shots today that is quite okay against a team that has conceded ten goals o far.

“I must say, the game between the boxes was quite okay but this is nothing new. We’ve been speaking about that since he is here and we cannot discuss about what is missing as we know it.”

On Monday morning, Southampton announced they had parted company with Hasenhuttl after four years in charge.