Ruben Selles admits time is running out for Southampton as team selection scrutinised
- Planet Sport writer
- 20 April 2023
Southampton boss Ruben Selles is refusing to bow to fan pressure over his team selection ahead of Friday's trip to Arsenal but admits that time is quickly running out for his side.
Southampton boss Ruben Selles admits time is running out for his relegation-threatened side but will not bow to outside pressure over team selection ahead of Friday night's trip to Arsenal.
The division's bottom club travel to the Emirates Stadium four points from safety with seven games to go on the back of a six-match winless streak.
Spaniard Selles concedes he has faced an uphill battle since succeeding Nathan Jones in February but retains belief the club can scrape survival.
"It has been desperate from the very first second," he said of the situation ahead of Friday evening's clash with the Gunners.
"The only thing is we are running out of time and the games are less and less in our account.
"We put some good performances but we didn't transform those into points and hopefully we can change and then start to get some points together with some good performances.
"If we play our game and put in the performance that we need, we have options to win the game.
"We have a good team in front (of us) but almost every week we have good teams in front."
Southampton are the joint lowest scorers in the division after managing just 24 goals all season.
Meanwhile, Selles insists he will not alter his team selection based on the views of others, with some Saints fans calling for £18million January signing Paul Onuachu to start in the absence of injured striker Che Adams.
"I don't make my line-up or my actions in terms of what anybody else thinks," he said.
"It's not only about having one nine that can score the goals. You need to create the situations to be able to be competitive and to be in the game until you can score that goal.
"I understand the concern is that some players have been scoring some goals in some different environments as our boys did it in other teams.
"But this is a completely different challenge for all of us and it's a completely different challenge for all of them.
"The solution is not to put one, two, three or four strikers; the solution is that the situations that we create playing as a team, we need to score it as a team. This is not about one name."
On-loan Ainsley Maitland-Niles is ineligible against his parent club, while Adams, Mohammed Salisu, Tino Livramento and Juan Larios remain sidelined.
