“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success,” Babe Ruth, the legendary baseball player, once said.

“You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”

As second-placed Saints prepare for what could well be a defining week in their season, with games against Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, those words might ring true with Toby Alderweireld.

After all, it is the squad’s team ethic that he believes will be their greatest asset in this challenging period, which begins on Sunday with the visit of the defending Premier League champions.

“Of course, Graziano [Pelle] is scoring, and [Dusan] Tadic is getting his assists, but I think the team is our strength, because everybody wants to work very hard,” said the centre-half, who is a key part of Saints’ formidable defence currently the best in England.

“Everybody’s hungry for success, hungry to win games, and that’s important.

“Nobody’s thinking ‘This is my game’. We just want to win, win, win, and that’s the most important thing.

“If you get a clean sheet, at least you get a point.

“That’s a good feeling that everybody has, because defensively we are standing good, so from that side we can move on to the attack.”

Alderweireld knows how far such a sense of togetherness can take a team, having experienced it before – last season, in fact.

Stunned Then, he was a member of the Atletico Madrid side that stunned Real Madrid and Barcelona to win La Liga, before coming within seconds of winning the Champions League.

So, while many may doubt Saints’ chances of springing a truly stunning surprise this season, Alderweireld knows as well as anyone that the clubs with the biggest reputations don’t always win out.

“In the beginning, nobody was giving Atletico [a chance],” said the 25-year-old, who is on a season-long loan from the Spanish side.

“Even maybe the last ten games, people were saying ‘Yeah, they will lose points’.

“Just like the coach, [Diego] Simeone, told us, see game by game and, at the end, we will see.

“They are better, they have a better squad, ok, but we have something special – we have a team.

“They have better players, but we have a team.

“We have to have a team and we can do great things, like now.

“But it can change very quickly.”

Alderweireld insists that, while Saints are about to face opposition of significant quality, they will not alter their approach.

In fact, he does not even believe that the gap between Saints and Sunday’s visitors, City, is all that big anymore.

“The only thing I can say is we have to play with confidence, play our game, not to change because they are a big team,” he said.

“Especially at home, we have to give everything, we have to play our football and everything is possible.

“In every game, everything is possible, and we have the qualities to beat them.

“But, if we are not 100 per cent, they will beat us.

“Every fault is a goal. That’s the top level.

“A lot of guys play now with their national teams. Clyney (Nathaniel Clyne), he’s in the England team, so everybody is knowing the level we want to play.

“I don’t think it’s a big difference between City or Southampton this year.

“Like I feel it now, it’s not a step like [it was before]. Sometimes it’s details, just details.”

In the next six weeks or so, Saints will play twice against Arsenal and twice against Manchester United, as well as matches with City, Chelsea and Everton.

With a schedule like that, there will undoubtedly be some setbacks along the way, but Alderweireld believes the squad have the mentality to cope.

“Of course, we are going to lose a game, and then we don’t have to panic,” he said.

“That was good from when we lost in Tottenham. It was not our best game, and then we kept on winning. That’s important.

“If you lose one time, you have to pick it up, play our game, and be confident in ourselves.

“We showed it before, and we can show it again. That’s the way.

“In Atletico, it was the same – ok, we lost one time. Next time we have to be there again.”

If Saints do come through this run of fixtures well, then the opportunities for them would be tantalising ... a prospect of qualifying for European football, via a high league finish, for the first time since the mid 1980s.

“To get to European football would be fantastic,” said Alderweireld.

“But, like I said, it’s going to be the same – see game by game and then at the end of the season we will see how far we can get.

“It can change a lot, quickly. If you lose three or four times, you are going [down the table].

“We just need to try to get the points when we can and give our best.”

The Belgium international added: “It’s like I said before. Don’t go in like ‘Oh no, it’s the big teams’. Just play our game and be confident.

“These are the games when you are [young] that you want to play.

“So enjoy it, and when you are enjoying it you play your best football.”

If Saints can do that, it could be quite a week ...