Ruben Selles has ramped up the pressure on Southampton’s trip to Nottingham Forest on Monday.
The Saints boss says his team must win at the City Ground if they are to stand any chance of avoiding relegation to the Championship. The St Mary’s outfit are currently bottom of the Premier League, six points from safety with only four games left and having not won any of their last nine matches.
Forest, by contrast, are third bottom, only in the drop zone on goal difference and won their last home match – a raucous 3-1 victory over Brighton. Speaking to talkSPORT, Selles did not seek to downplay the importance of the game.
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“We have been in that situation, win at all costs, we needed to win against Newcastle, we needed to do it again against Bournemouth so we have been living those situations right now,” he told the White and Jordan show.
“But of course now with less games to play in front of us the situation is starting to be critical. We are going to go there and we are going to try to win the game and make our very best to do it. I think we have showed how competitive we can be. We just need to show if we can be more robust 90-95, 100 minutes and yes, it is a game that we must win.
“I am very forward oriented and very task oriented, when it is 12 points to play for still and we have the chance to play Nottingham Forest and be straight back in the race to try to stay in the Premier League, that’s all my focus. I am not focused for more than one game at a time.
“I know what the situation has been from the very beginning but really I am just focusing on what it is in my hands – to have a team that needs to work well every day, needs to be prepared for Nottingham Forest and I can’t speak more than that. We don’t want to start to speculate. We still have possibilities to do it and we are going to fight for it with everything we have.”
Selles has only won two of his 14 games in charge of Southampton.
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