Every word Southampton FC boss Russell Martin said ahead of Leicester

Q: How does it feel to be back from the international break? How are you and the squad feeling?

RM: Good. Excited about the game. Excited to have everyone back together today for the first time in a couple of weeks. So, yeah, really looking forward to it.

I've enjoyed the way the guys have trained. I've enjoyed the time we've spent with them. And now, yeah, everything is around getting ready for Saturday.

Q: Is there any team news for us to note?

RM: I think everyone is pretty much as is. Ross Stewart came off against Arsenal and won't be available. It's not a long-term injury, but it's another frustrating setback for Ross.

So he'll bounce back, as he always does. But, yeah, disappointing for him and for us. And then, apart from that, Kamaldeen is fit now to be in the squad.

Will Smallbone is back as well in the squad. So, yeah, a couple of positives for us.

Q: Can you chat to us a bit about coming back off the back of an international break? Does it provide a clean slate, a bit of a fresh start for everyone, the chance to regroup?

RM: I think it gives everyone a chance to work and to have a bit of rest as well, the guys that need it. Then it gives us a chance to really reflect and review on things over the last month or so, since the last break.

So I think we always try and utilise it in the best way possible. About what's gone well, what hasn't gone well, what we can build on, the positives and stuff that we really need to work on. So I think the process doesn't change.

I think the only frustration is then you don't have a game to then put it into practice. But it's been a good break.

I think we're in a good place after Arsenal in terms of performance and feeling and spirit and now we have to go again on Saturday.

Q: You touched on Arsenal there, but you've been consistent in saying how proud you are of the team. What do you think can make the difference on Saturday and get you over the line?

RM: I think managing big moments better than we have done. Managing tough moments better than we have done. I think the team is growing.

I'm enjoying watching the team grow and I loved watching them. The response in the second half at Bournemouth, to be honest, I didn't give them enough credit for.

Because that was a really difficult moment. And we put it on the players at half-time to really show that they cared and wanted to run and fight for each other.

And they did. And then the game was just too far gone. And then Arsenal, they built on that.

The willingness to run, fight for each other, to defend, to take the ball in the second half in particular and the courage to play football in the way you want to play.

I thought they were outstanding. So, I'm proud of the journey they're on. But no one cares about any of that if you don't win, so we have to win. And this game is as good as any to get that first win and to really kick us off.

Q: What is your reaction to Thomas Tuchel's being appointed as the new England manager?

RM: Well, I think he's an exceptional coach. He's got a brilliant track record and I know there'll be lots of opinions and conversation around him not being English and all of that.

We've had foreign managers before in charge of the national team but if the FA had decided he's the best man for the job, he's the best man.

I would say I think there are loads of English coaches really capable of doing a job as well. I get asked the question all the time about the style of play and all this stuff.

But, yeah, we are English managers. It's really difficult to get the opportunity to manage in the Premier League unless you take a team there a lot of the time.

A lot of the time you have to go and get promoted with a team to get the opportunity to get there. So, maybe English managers are not given enough credit or maybe they're deemed not good enough by the most important people.

I hope at some point it'll be really obvious that there are lots of really good English managers around who are capable of doing it.

But in terms of him getting the job, I think he's a brilliant manager. And I think he'll do a really, really good job.

I think it's going to cause a lot of interesting discussion and conversation. The FA have a well-renowned coach education system that people come from far and wide to do and then we can't appoint someone from that.

So, I guess that's an interesting topic for discussion. But, great manager. He'll do a great job. I'm looking forward to watching his team play.

Q: How is Ross Stewart dealing with his injury?

RM: I think it's natural for him to be really disappointed after his first Premier League start to get injured and for it to be cut short.

I think we just have to support him in the best way we possibly can, as we always do. I think there's no one more upset and hurt than Ross.

Then we feel all of that with him and for him. So, we just have to support him and bring him back in the best way we possibly can.

It's not going to be a long-term injury. I think the international breaks have come at a good time for him which means he won't miss a huge amount of games.

We just need to, I think, support him mentally and psychologically more than anything physical because he's had one setback after the other. We'll do that. 

We have a brilliant group of people here, players and staff, to support him and he knows that. He knows he's loved and cared for.

I think he'll get through it at some point. These setbacks will maybe still happen, but hopefully fewer and far between. But, yeah, he'll be supported in the best way possible.

Q: What effect has the goal at Arsenal had on Cameron Archer?

RM: I think it's going to be brilliant for him. I think the weight will be lifted because he's had a few chances to score before that. I think he's been really good for us, actually.

In his short spell here, he's been a real threat. I think the chances he's had before the goal, probably only he gets because of the quality of his movement and the speed of his movement.

He's improving all the time. I really love him as a boy. The willingness to work and want to get better. He wants to help the team.

He just wants to, repetition after repetition and make a mistake, keep going, go again. And I think he's a brilliant signing for us. And I think that will help him. I think he'll score a lot for us.

Q: After Bournemouth there was lots of talk of character and personality. I wondered if Jan Bednarek had particularly stepped up in that sort of leadership role at Arsenal, in your opinion?

RM: I think a lot of them did. I think we have a lot of people that are capable of developing into really brilliant leaders. And we have to enable them to do that as much as we possibly can.

I think the biggest voice we have is Adam Lallana, who's been there and done it. But I think that's always come naturally to him. The way he grew up in the team he grew up in.

You had to have a voice and you had to have character and you had to have big resilience to get through that. So I think he's helping the others a lot.

We're trying to enable them. Janny B has been a big leader for us on the pitch the whole time we've been here and he's stepped into that more and more.

Flynn Downes is the same and now we need to encourage more and more of them to do it. Joe Aribo does it in his own way.

The more we have on the pitch, the more people we have willing to take responsibility, the better for them and for their careers and also for us as a group.

Q: Leicester this weekend, what have you made of their start and their performances?

Yeah, I think a well-coached team. I think it'll be two well-coached teams in different styles. But honestly, the focus has been on us.

I think we have an awareness of what they can do because they've put in a really good performance away at Arsenal. Bournemouth at home, they were very good.

Our job is to be aware of that and aware of their threats and also aware of what we can do and what game we need to bring. We're at home.

We're off the back of a performance people feel good about in the building, albeit frustrated about the result.

And now we need to turn that into a win. So I think people keep asking me how big the game is. Is it a six-pointer and all that? Every game in the Premier League is huge.

So I think obviously the previous results will dictate how other people feel about it externally and the result and all the noise around it.

Every game is huge and the guys know that. Now we have another opposition in our way of three points that want it as much as we do.

We have to make sure that we play the game that we want to play as much as we can.

Q: You've played Steve Cooper's sides before. How much of him do you see in this team right now? Are they still transitioning from the team they were last season?

RM: I think they've got some brilliant traits still from last season where they were asked to play in a really clear way with Enzo.

They were the best team in the league and that proved over the course of the season they were outstanding.

So they still have some really brilliant attributes that Steve's obviously put into his team and allowed them to maintain.

Then, as is always the case with Steve and his coaching staff and his team, they're excellent in terms of organisation without the ball.

Making it really difficult for you and being such a threat on the counter-attack with the players they have. So, yeah, I think he's obviously combining both and doing it well and it'll be an interesting game.

Q: They have threats everywhere like everyone does, but Facundo Buonanotte has been particularly influential in the last couple of games. He was linked with a move here. Is he a player you admire?

RM: He was never mentioned here, so I think there were a lot of players linked here. I watched him a lot for Brighton over the last year or so before he got injured.

He's a really talented player. Every team in the Premier League has a lot of talented players and we can sit here and talk about all of them.

So I think, yeah, we're aware of their threats and the talent they have and I'm sure they'll be aware of ours as well.

Q: It was such a good moment when you got to half-time nil-nil at Arsenal and then the boys came out with a real spring in their step and you played higher up the pitch. Is that how you have to do it in the Premier League?

RM: I think we can definitely get off to a start with a bit more aggression and being on the front foot a bit more.

I think it's natural. You're playing against Arsenal, one of the best teams in the country, off the back of a tough result on a Monday night.

I love the willingness to defend in the box and to fight and all that stuff, but we did it a bit too much in the first half.

So at half-time, it's always our job to try and show them a couple of clear pictures that actually we can be a bit better with the ball, a bit braver. They were. Between 45 and 60 we were outstanding.

We caused them a lot of problems. We had some big, big moments. I was really proud of the players. And then we scored. If we hang on to the lead a bit longer, who knows, it may be a different game.

But we can see too quickly after that. So, yeah, there was loads to be positive about. But I don't think we're ever going to go into a game going, let's get to 60 minutes, let's get to half-time and be in the game and then see.

I do think with the way that we play, the longer the game goes, if we're in it, we have a good chance. The odds are tilting in our favour a little bit, in my experience over five years, if we are able to dominate the ball and do what we want to do.

But in the Premier League that is not easy. So we have to really earn that. We're going to have to do that on Saturday again.

Q: It felt like an achievement, the clean sheet at half-time there. You haven't had one yet, of course, in the Premier League. How important is a first clean sheet? 

RM: I think, yeah, all of it. When you score more goals, we should have. We miss, I think, the third or fourth most big chances in the league. We should be in more points than we're on. It's been a frustration.

We should have a clean sheet or two. We don't. So we have to make sure we keep doing the right things, keep focusing on the right things, and trust in the work and trust in each other that it will come.

And it's always been the case, and it always has come, like it did last season, even during a difficult moment.

You just trust that if you keep working on the right things and focusing on the right things for us as a group, then it will come good. So I've got no doubt at some point it will.

And when it does, we would have earned it and we would deserve it. It's interesting.

Q: Steve Cooper, this morning in his press conference, was asked about your side and playing football and so on.

You need to have those consistent traits and play the same way to have that. I think whatever way you play, you have to be consistent with it. Or whatever way you behave, you have to be consistent with it.

Otherwise, it just doesn't last very long with the players. So I think one thing we do have is a consistent process, a consistent belief system, consistent values in the team, what's important regardless of who we're playing against.

Of course, in and around that, you have to tweak and adapt depending on the opposition, the games and the context of the game.

But yes, I think we're really consistent with what we look for and we've seen actually a lot of it consistently on the pitch and in just a few moments that have hurt us.

In the Premier League, you can't afford to have that. So we know we need to do that a bit better.

Q: On Kamaldeen, you said he was back in the squad, I think you said? He's frustrating from the outside because we know he's gifted, he's got natural abilities. How do we get him from he could be good to he's good?

RM: I think like a combination of many things, I thought we got him into a really good place last year.

He got into a really good rhythm, really helped the team and then got a little injury and it sort of set him back. He didn't quite get the same Kamaldeen back.

I think with his attributes, it's our job to work out the best way to use him, the best position, the best way to get him the ball or the best way to make him feel a big part of the game.

He can give you moments that no one else can give you with his athleticism and his power and his pace. Some of the things he can do at top speed are really incredible to see sometimes.

I think it's consistency with him. The Kamaldeen we have now in terms of the way he trains consistently is very different to the guy we walked into.

I think he just needs to maintain that and keep him fit. I think that's the most important thing. So we'll have to manage him and use him in the right way over the next few weeks.

Then if we can do that and keep him in a good place physically, then we have someone who can really make a difference for us in games.

Q: We know it's a big month. Three of the four games are what people would call winnable. They all are, but that's what people will say. How do we keep this not about your future but more about everything it needs to be about?

RM: I think as long as we're focusing on the right things inside the building, we can't control anything else.

So I think when you're a manager, you accept that all anyone ever cares about on the outside is results.

Then perception and reality are often very, very far apart in football. I think all that matters is what we focus on inside the building. Everyone, of course, will read stuff and all of that.

And also, three winnable games and all that stuff is never that easy in the Premier League. So we went to Brentford and Bournemouth already this season and the few questions I was asked before the games are winnable.

These teams have been in the Premier League for a long time now and have a really clear way of doing things and they're there for a reason. They're good. Everyone's good.

So we have to be really good to compete and to win. So I will focus on the same things I've focused on for five years when I was in the relegation zone in League One when I took over at MK to now.

Just keep trying to grow this team under the biggest scrutiny they need to keep growing on their journeys individually and for us as a group.

That's our job to make sure that they can do that and if they continue growing and maintain the pride in what they're doing and the belief in what they're doing and the courage to do it, then I'm convinced we can have a really brilliant and exciting season.

Yes, it's been a frustrating start in terms of results but I think the team has shown that they can really compete at times as well when we stay us and want to be us.

I'm still excited about it. Oh, I'm more excited about this game than I have been. I think that's the international break.

I feel so excited about it and about what's to come and we need to make sure it's a good month for us.