Newly appointed Southampton manager Ivan Juric says his side are capable of “something exceptional” as they look to avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.
Juric, formerly of Roma, Genoa and Torino, also compared his footballing style to death metal music as he looks to turn around the fortunes at St Mary’s this term.
The Croatian will take charge of his first game on Boxing Day, when Southampton host West Ham. The Saints are currently rooted to the bottom of the table on six points, eight points from safety.
Meeting the media 📸 pic.twitter.com/Q65aECoVJZ
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) December 23, 2024
Following the dismissal of Russell Martin, Juric signed an 18-month deal at Southampton. However, his task, on paper at least, appears rather steep.
In the history of the Premier League, only four teams have survived from the same position on 25 December: West Brom in 2004-05, Sunderland in 2013-14, Leicester in 2014-15, and Wolves in 2022-23.
“It will be a very tough job,” said Juric.
“I know that in the history nobody stayed in the Premiership with this situation, but I think there are a lot of good players, and we have [to be] much better in some moments of the game.
“I am optimistic. I’m really optimistic. Even the other day, I saw their mentality and it’s the first step to doing better. I think we can do something exceptional. The guys have to be very motivated to do something that never, nobody did.”
🆕 Your #SaintsFC team news for Ivan Jurić’s first game in charge:
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) December 23, 2024
Juric added that the job at Southampton, however challenging, was an attractive prospect and explained how a very specific genre of music helps inform his tactical approach.
He said: “It was a little bit of a dream, the Southampton opportunity.
“I was thinking that life is short, I want to try new things and I want to travel to the other way of working, put myself in a difficult situation, and that’s it.
“They [the players] don’t know me but I know them. I said that I believe in them, they have quality, they can do it. Be positive, work hard, and everything is possible.
“When I was young I liked death metal music a lot, and that’s something I think my style of football is like.
“Work hard, press hard, play good, be intense, all this stuff. I think (the players) can do it.
“They are young, they are positive, they want to work hard. It’s not easy to change the style immediately, but we have to be clever.”
