How interim manager Ruben Selles wants his Southampton FC team to play

Selles arrived at Saints in the summer and his since been part of multiple coaching set-ups, first under Hasenhuttl and then more recently with Nathan Jones. But following the sacking of Jones on Sunday, Selles has taken charge of the first-team.

It remains to be seen how long Selles’ period of stewardship will last with the Spaniard insisting that he wants the job and is ready to take Saints forward. Jesse Marsch was expected to be announced as Jones’s successor this week but after talks broke down, Selles will now lead the team to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

READ MORE: 'I want to be the manager' Selles eyeing permanent Saints job ahead of Chelsea test 

The 39-year-old has amassed an impressive amount of experience across as many as six different European nations and believes his learning alongside numerous top-level coaches has prepared him to lead a team himself now.

“It’s not only the last season, it’s about the last three, four, or five seasons,” Selles said about having to adhere to other people’s management decisions in his role as a coach and assistant. 

“I was always playing with the ideas of someone else. Now I have the chance to play with my ideas and that is what I like - to see and prove that my ideas are right. I know my way to arrive at this position was assisting some of the best coaches in the world - in the case of Ralph - I learnt a lot and from this learning I think I can show my own personality through my team.”

Ruben Selles cites Ralph Hasemhuttl as an influence on his career. (Image: PA)

So what should a ‘Ruben Selles’ team look like and what does he want it to look like?

“The first thing we need to learn is how to control the game. And to do that implicates a lot of details. First of all we need to know the opponent and know the details of the players in front of us. And then we need to be able to create the structure in our team to be able to press in the moments we can press and have the ball in the moments we can have the ball. 

“It’s nothing out of the book, it’s something that is very logical for the players, something the players know how to do, in the moments we can do it…to control the game in possession and against the ball.

“It’s going to be something close to that. Of course, we didn’t have the time to prepare everything in detail but as much as we can recycle from the former managers and put it together, that is what we are doing. I think we will see a very good version of what a ‘Ruben’ team can be.”

‘Process’ is a word that Selles frequently latched onto during his 30-minute press conference with media ahead of the trip to Chelsea.

While fans will still need to see his ideas on the pitch - and the concrete rewards that must come with them - it’s evident that the coach himself is clear about what he wants and how he wants to get there.

“Football is about creating a process to be able to perform and win,” Selles explained. “You can win a game by being lucky but you can not win ten games being lucky - you need a process there. And that’s what we are building.

“I think we need to be stricter under pressure. We put a lot of emphasis this week on knowing when we are able to press or when we are in the pressing and when we are defending spaces, and when we are chasing. That's a big thing. Because if we chase but we are not organised, we will end up running with one individual going away.”

While Selles is now in a completely different position to the one he started the season in, he was part of the coaching staff that helped mastermind August’s 2-1 win against Chelsea. He knows this is a different Chelsea team - with a new manager and a raft of new expensive signings - but the impressive Saints performance is a decent blueprint of how they can excel at their best.

“They were a very different team under Thomas Tuchel with some of the boys that are not there. But I think at that moment, we were very good in the medium block,” Selles said. 

“We worked very well as a unit in the centre. We were very dynamic in the counter-attacks and we have some chances in the second half also to finish the game and make it 3-1. I think in that moment we were a team that was in the process of getting some ideas together. I would like to see part of this character, part of this way to play back again. Togetherness, compactness.”

Of course, the tactical side is only part of the job. If Selles is to prove himself the right leader for this group, then a second element is likely even more important: the human side, who he is as a leader.

“I think it’s about how you see the leadership role,” Selles said about the transition from coach to manager. 

“I don’t want to be different because I’m lead assistant coach or manager now. I will just try to do things in the same ways I have been doing things. Otherwise I will not be myself. 

“I don’t think we are anymore in football where you have a surgeon as a coach who you can not speak to and who dictates everything you do. I think we are in 2023, you know the new generations are changing, they need more explanation, they are exposed to the media, they are probably in some different way, tmore prepared than before with social media. 

“I don’t see the role changing the personality of the person so I will be the same. I will communicate, I will try to be honest with them, I will try to be honest with you, because it’s the way my parents educated me - I don’t know how to do it in a different way.”