Southampton: Hasenhuttl facing major 'concern' at St Mary's

Southampton’s end-of-season collapse is a “concern” for Ralph Hasenhuttl moving forward, according to The Sun journalist Tom Barclay.

Hasenhuttl’s charges were on the cusp of challenging for the European places heading into the final months of the season, but a dreadful run of results saw them end up finishing just above the bottom three.

Having recovered from a poor start to the campaign, the Saints kicked into gear over the festive period and looked firmly on track to achieve their first top half finish under the Austrian’s guidance.

Southampton were scoring plenty, conceding few and had finally sorted out their questionable home form, which put them within touching distance of Wolves and Tottenham.

However, just like 12 months prior, Hasenhuttl’s team completely collapsed heading into the home straight and collected only five points from a possible 33 available.

As a result, Southampton ended up finishing 15th for the second season on the bounce, and Barclay reckons their dip in form is a worrying trend.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “The fact that we’ve basically seen a repetition of what we saw last season of the team’s form nosediving in the second half of the season. I think last year a lot of it you could put down to the extra games and the injuries that came as a result of those games.

“But this season, he seemed to have had a much bigger squad, albeit with more inexperienced players, but ones that had shown to be up to the task in the first half of the season, so to have such poor form must be a concern.”

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Hasenhuttl has largely done a good job since he arrived, although supporters will surely be forgiven for losing their patience following an