Ralph Hasenhuttl has insisted he is not haunted by the 9-0 horror show at the hands of Leicester which handed Southampton an unwanted place in the Premier League record books.
The Austrian will send his side into battle with the same opposition at St Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday evening adamant that his mind never goes back to that night in October 2019 when everything which could have gone wrong did so.
Hasenhuttl said: “Not one time have I thought back to that result, to be honest. It seems a different life away.
“That is the good thing in football, so many things happen between these matches. Every new game comes along and we go into them with the belief in what we have got to do.
“Then we know it is still a tough challenge – they are a good team with internationals, so they have a lot of experience and a wide squad. It will be interesting to face them and perform against them.”
Southampton were up against it on their own pitch almost from the off following Ryan Bertrand’s 12th-minute dismissal, and the Foxes took full advantage with both Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy plundering hat-tricks in a remarkable rout which equalled the biggest victory of the Premier League era.
However, the Saints went on to finish in 11th place in the table at the end of the season, and Hasenhuttl freely admits he would settle for that this time around.
He said: “I am not going to say I needed that result to change things or turn things around – we definitely did not. Regardless of that result, we are always on the move and looking to get better.
“There is nothing we can deny – we were not good enough in that moment – but we ended the season in 11th position, which for Southampton Football Club was a very good season in the end.
“We did not need to take such a big defeat to end up 11th, but if we can do that this season, it would be a great season, I think.”
Southampton head into the game on the back of successive defeats by Norwich and Liverpool, while the Foxes will arrive having beaten Legia Warsaw and Watford in their last two outings to end a four-game winless run.
