Southampton fans should expect Russell Martin’s side to stick to their guns in the Premier League this season according to Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
When Russell Martin took over as Southampton manager last summer, he arrived at a club who had been built to play in a counter-pressing, transition-focused style.
Much of that owed to the work done across almost four years of Ralph Hasenhuttl, before Ruben Selles looked to adopt a number of those principles after a short period with Nathan Jones at the helm.
This does not align with how Martin wants his teams to play and he therefore set to work to completely transform the Southampton playbook last season.
He did that with great success as he made Southampton a well-oiled passing machine whilst simultaneously achieving promotion to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.
The superior quality of the opposition in the top flight causes new challenges, but Taylor Harwood-Bellis insists Southampton will approach it in the same way.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis claims Southampton in ‘good space’ ahead of Newcastle opener
Morale is high in the Southampton camp after a fairytale end to last season at Wembley.
There have been eight first-team signings this summer – with Harwood-Bellis’s loan move being made permanent one of them – but the core of the side is very much the same.
Harwood-Bellis will be relishing his opportunity to establish himself in the Premier League having now been promoted from the Championship in consecutive seasons whilst on loan from Manchester City.
The 22-year-old has been speaking to the Daily Echo ahead of the first game of the season against Newcastle where he opened up on how the Southampton squad are feeling.
Harwood-Bellis said: “I think we’re in a good space. We’re mentally ready, physically ready, and let’s see what it brings now.
“We’ve just got to go and do our stuff, be brave and play our football. It’s not changed to be fair with what we want to do.”
The centre-back did add that there is still work to be done, saying: “We want to tidy a few bits up. There were a few spells in games that we kind of lost control with a few chances that we conceded.
“I’m not going to say we’re not conceding any chances this season because the quality going into the Premier League has gone up by a lot.
“We’re just ironing a few things out and there’ll be stuff we need to get better on, even through the season, but we want to be brave and hopefully do our thing.”
Harwood-Bellis explains common Southampton misconception
One of the frustrations for Southampton fans last season was the perceived over-playing when the side looked capable of putting sides to the sword if they were quicker to build attacks.
However, Martin will not change his style and Harwood-Bellis spoke on what he sees as a misconception associated with his manager’s philosophy.
Harwood-Bellis explained: “I think some people get mistaken about how we play and think we’re just passing it for the sake of it.
“It’s with a purpose. Sometimes football fans or other people might look and think they’re just trying to play for the sake of it. We’re not.
“If we can do it in one pass, we will. If I think it’s on, I’ll play it. People have seen I like the ball over the top, I probably try it too much in the gaffer’s mind.
“If it’s on, we’ll do it – and everyone’s on the same page. The big thing is, if we try it and it doesn’t come off, we’ll just run hard to win it back.”
Harwood-Bellis is not alone in his complete backing of Martin’s style, with the Southampton squad clearly enjoying playing a way that sees them dominate the ball on a weekly basis.
It will be intriguing to see how that translates to the Premier League, but don’t expect Martin to waver on his beliefs if things aren’t going to plan.