Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has challenged his side to show they can cope without injured striker Danny Ings – starting by keeping a clean sheet.
Ings, on a season-long loan from Liverpool, was forced off with a hamstring injury after less than half an hour of the Premier League match at Burnley.
Hasenhuttl confirmed the striker, who has scored seven Premier League goals for Saints, is expected to be sidelined for at least three weeks.
The Austrian coach is confident he has enough attacking threat to help cover, but wants some more determined rearguard action after seeing Burnley earn a point from 1-1 draw thanks to a last-minute penalty.
“Danny had made after 20 minutes a big step to the ball and then a sprint, then he had problems with his hamstring. That costs him maybe two or three weeks to come back, that is not good,” Hasenhuttl said at a press conference on Thursday.
“We will miss him, for sure, he is a good player for us and good striker, we need to have him here. For the moment, we know that’ll take two or three weeks of recovery.
“But we’ll have Pierre (Hojbjerg) back after his concussion. It is important for us, because of his experience in this (midfield) position, we missed him a bit (against Burnley).”
Hasenhuttl continued: “I don’t think we’re showing we have problems scoring, we have scored in nearly every game.
“We should be focused to have more clean sheets in the future.
“We showed in the last game we can score, and sometimes it must be enough to score once, not two or three times to take the win.
“That is the target we are most focused on, to try to have this clean sheet.”
Despite the disappointment of not holding on for all three points at Turf Moor, Saints remain unbeaten in the Premier League this calendar year.
Hasenhuttl has slowly overseen an upturn in fortunes as he prepares to face fellow relegation battlers Cardiff, the team he lost against just a couple of days following his appointment on December 6, 2018.
“We should really be focused on Saturday, because we know we gave two points away against Burnley in the last minute, and that hurts a lot,” the Southampton manager said.
“I think the reaction of the team will be a very focused one – and to be honest, I don’t want to play against my team on the weekend, because they are really hot.”
As well as the return of Hojbjerg, defender Maya Yoshida is available again following Asian Cup duty with Japan, who were beaten in the final by Qatar.
Hasenhuttl also confirmed Ryan Bertrand has resumed full training again having been troubled by back problems.
