Every word Southampton manager Russell Martin said ahead of Ipswich

Q: You've got no Jack Stephens, has everyone else come through the week alright? Is anyone unavailable?

RM: No, I don't think so. I think everyone's come through unscathed from midweek. So, yeah, there'll be a couple of guys playing in the 21s tomorrow night because it's here and we have a chance to watch them and control that environment as much as we possibly can.

So, a few guys have been left out of the squad recently. And then, we'll pick the best team and the best squad that we feel we have available for this game.

Q: What has a win done to the feeling here this week?

RM: Not much, really. Honestly, I really love the environment we have and the culture that the guys have together at work and the way they treat each other and treat the staff. Maybe it's made a few players feel a bit lighter or externally people feel a bit better.

But we're really process-driven. So, it's the same as anything. We got through the game. I was really happy with a lot of the performances, a lot of the individual performances as well. But we've analysed it.

We've looked at it. We've tried to learn from it, again, going into the weekend. It was a big progression from the Manchester United game in terms of response to disappointment in the game and the mentality throughout the game.

I really enjoyed that. So, it's given us loads of food for thought in terms of team selection. And I think it's put a few of the players in a much better place than they were individually, probably.

But as a group, as a collective, the feeling's always been good. I mean that. Even after four defeats, they've trained so hard. We try and follow the same process consistently, try and to treat each other in the same way.

But also whilst feeling the results and feeling disappointed and feeling frustrated and feeling angry about certain bits. But we can only try and get better and be better at what we do.

And I feel like that has to be the message all season. We will keep trying to be better. And on Tuesday night we were better. Now we have to be better again on Saturday.

Q: Is it harder to get the mindset across to the players that good things are around the corner?

RM: Well, I think everyone in the building really believes in what they're doing. I think everyone's built up a little bit of probably being guilty of overthinking and building up the Premier League to an extent where it's probably affected things a little bit.

We've tried to be really consistent with that and not do that. But of course, it's only natural, right? People going in it for the first time, some guys being hurt by it the last time they were in it. The whole place, how it was affected last time in the Premier League.

Maybe it's been a bit of trepidation that's led to a few things that probably wouldn't happen if the guys were really in flow. But I think any team that we've had over the five seasons we've been a management group is the team gets better and better.

They learn very quickly and they learn a lot and the young players and the new players, once they really integrate and understand what they are required to do, the team finds a rhythm and a flow.

We have to do it very, very quickly because probably really the only difference is the external noise and the scrutiny and everything else in the Premier League, which changes people's perceptions and feelings sometimes. 

We'll continue to keep doing what we're doing. As I said, keep getting better. And I feel like we are and for half an hour against Manchester United, the guys really showed that.

We made 10 changes and the team looks so similar in the way it plays, which I'm so pleased about. And now we have to do the same again on Saturday.

Q: What does making 10 changes and seeing the game exactly how you wanted to see it, what does that do to your selection line for this weekend?

RM: Well, it gives us a lot of problems, which is great. I think I said to the guys before the game, in difficult moments there always lies opportunity for things and people.

And for being open to people surprising you or maybe showing you really what they can do when you know it's there at some point.

It's just not quite been happening for whatever reason. So I think we had our best moments off the back of tough moments last season.

When I look back on my career, every good moment I had was always preceded by a tough one. And then you learn through that and you grow through that and you improve and you get better.

I think we'll have to be the same in the same way we were last season. So everyone's feeling really frustrated with the results, but everyone's feeling really pleased about so many aspects of the performance.

Tuesday night we ended up winning the game as well, which was the most important bit. But the performance was really, really good. So we have to maintain that performance level and now start doing what is the most important thing in winning.

Q: How big an opportunity or significant an opportunity does this weekend present you with?

I think it's a big game. I think every game in the Premier League is huge. They're going to be a tough opposition.

As we found out last year, they've really improved in terms of what they've recruited and they have a really excellent manager and they're really good at what they do.

It's going to be really interesting to come up against them again this season in the Premier League and see what changes. I feel like we are on our own journey, they're on theirs. And I think it's a really exciting match.

Q: Are you expecting them to come in a similar way to you?

RM: I think you can only ever make the best-educated guess from analysing the last few games, analysing last season's matches, what went well for them against us, what went well for us against them.

And understand that their coaching team are meticulous in their approach and the way they can adapt to certain opposition. But also maintaining what they want to be. So I think it will be really interesting.

Us against them is very different to Brighton against them after Brighton started the season as well, and the players they have and all that stuff. So you take as much as you can from the previous game, the previous few games.

And then, like I said, you make the best educated guess you possibly can to see what they're going to come with. We'll try and do that.

Q: As a former Norwich captain, obviously you've got a lot of history with Ipswich. Will you use the heartbreak from last season as fuel?

RM: No, it really hurt. And I think you use anything. Part of our job is to be storytellers with the players. They are the main characters in the story. So last season, we used that as fuel a lot because it really hurt the manner of the defeat.

It was a real blow to us at the time after one of our best performances of the season. Actually, at times it was an incredible performance. Then we ended up on the losing team, which really, really hurt. 

And we used that. We have a lot of different players now. And I think this season is a different story. But maybe a few players, we can tap into that and make them understand, feel that again.

If we can use that, then of course we will. But I think with the players we have, and as I said, a lot of new players, a lot of young players, not necessarily that important. I think they understand what's at stake.

They understand the tough start to the season we're having. And they're desperate to put it right. So we'll see if we need it. We'll see if we need to put it out at any point.

Q: Have the sports science team told you anything about your numbers having played Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday this week?

RM: It's no coincidence to me that we had a brilliant performance and we ran the most all season on Tuesday. That has to be the backbone of any performance. 

The reaction to losing the ball on Tuesday night was really brilliant. The reaction to the mistakes was really brilliant. The next action was positive intention. Physically, they're all in a really good place.

We have a brilliant sports science and medical team, brilliant facilities. That hasn't come into the thinking in terms of team selection, about freshness and all that.

It's about the best team on Saturday, because they're all in a place where we're pretty sure they're physically good enough to go and perform the way we want them to.

Q: At what point of the season do you think the team will have settled down after all of the international breaks?

You just can't find any rythm but it is what it is and you have to try and deal with that. We have a lot of players that go away. I think I'm convinced we will get better and keep improving.

The more time the players have on a training pitch, the better they'll become. That's the evidence we have after five years of being a management team as well.

I think it was the case last season, which was a bigger change because we were trying to implement something totally different to the players.

Now a lot of them understand it, but then we still have a lot of new guys that have come in. Then also us adapting to the Premier League.

I think that's been really interesting for us to learn certain bits that really were effective in the Championship, maybe less so in the Premier League against certain opposition.

Stuff we have to tweak and adapt. We're finding our rhythm as well as the players. I'm loving that part of the process.

I think the players are enjoying playing around with stuff on the training pitch and working stuff out for themselves as well. They're a big part of that. We will keep learning, we will keep adapting, but whilst remaining us.

I said that to the players on Tuesday. I was really grateful for that performance and really proud of them. Also the resilience they showed with the penalties and conceding a goal and coming back from that.

That was the most pleasing thing. As long as you stay together and you stay brave, the rest will come because we have a really enjoyable and thorough process with the players.

Q: How much do the players realise there is competition for positions?

RM: I think they understand that it's a real competition now and no one can feel comfortable, myself included, for any period of time at all.

Being comfortable or being uncomfortable, I think, and the players really pushing each other. Honestly, the hardest bit is leaving so many of them out of the matchday squad at the moment. It's so tough to do that.

So many of the players that have done so well for us last season and were so important are now not even in the squad or on the bench.

It's not easy, but they have to just keep working and everyone is going to be needed. There are going to be some tough moments, there are going to be some brilliant ones and they'll all be part of it.

They'll all have to feel it, whether they're in the squad or they're out, whether they're starting or whether they're not.

I think the competition actually, and you can feel it in training as well, is a real nice, healthy edge to that. It needs to be and people have to be ready.

Q: Does that mean there's no best 11? We always want to traditionally say you get the best 11?

RM: Well, I think it's a balance. So there'll be different shapes for different opposition. There'll be different players that suit different opposition.

So much of what we do is built on relationships and understanding of what the next player needs on the pitch, what your mate needs, sacrificing yourself for your mate to pass on time.

Last year, really, we found a really settled side and people built relationships over a period of time, which really, really helped us.

So having that in mind, but also balancing if we need some different things for different games. That's why we try and play them together in training as much as possible.

We look at different relationships and people with different attributes to help someone else next to them.

Because the way we play is very much based on feeling and relationships with each other. It's a balance and we have to try and get that as right as we possibly can.

Q: Have you had to pick Cameron Archer up this week after his penalty miss?

RM: The players really care. Cameron's come in, he's such a good young man, a brilliant young man. He's brilliant to work with, wants to get better.

He's missed a penalty but he's a striker, in a playing position where he'll miss chances, maybe some in big games at points in his career.

Your response to disappointment is the most important thing. I don't think as a group we responded anywhere near well enough on Saturday.

That's big learning for us. Cam's trained brilliantly. We've looked at his clips, we've had a couple of really good discussions about it.

I think between the time of the penalty that was given and then it was actually took, I think that took over a little bit and a bit of tension crept in.

I think it's brilliant learning for him and we have a really top young talent in our hands and it's up to us to manage him.

I've got no doubt if he plays on Saturday for however many minutes that he will bounce back and it'll be brilliant for us.