Mauricio Pellegrino remains convinced he is the man to turn around Saints’ flagging season.

Saints this evening face a daunting trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford, desperate to end a run of seven games without a win and to extended the ever closing gap between themselves and the bottom three.

Pellegrino is increasingly under the spotlight, particularly after recent hammerings by Leicester and Tottenham, but still has the belief he can make things right.

“Yes, for sure,” he insisted.

“Football sometimes has got this moment and now in Premier League everything is really equalised.

“Obviously Spurs played well and did a good game and we were really poor defensively and when you are poor defensively they look more than normal.

“For this reason we have to come back to simple principles and come back in our performance.

“Against Man U and thinking about the future and the transfer market in January we can bounce back.”

The transfer market could be key for Saints.

Virgil van Dijk will move to Liverpool for £75m on Monday, and Saints will be active in trying to recruit players with the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Theo Walcott and Alfie Mawson having already been linked.

For now though, Pellegrino is trying to ignore the pressure he is under.

“Everybody that works in the top level are always under the opinion of everybody,” he reflected.

“Obviously I respect the opinion and I have the same feeling as the fans.

“I am not happy when we don’t play well and I would like to keep the people proud of our team.

“Almost 50 per cent of the Premier League is ahead and still we have time to bounce back and show another face.”

Pellegrino also defended Maya Yoshida after the Saints defender admitted the club were in a worse situation than last year when they fired Claude Puel.

“The players are the first ones that realise that we are not performing well,” said Pellegrino.

“The first thing you have to do as a Southampton player is to be conscious. We have got a critics spirit in our dressing room.

“Maya is one of the captains and I think the intention of the player is that he assumes responsibility and wants to bounce back from the situation.

“Maya is always the guy who is constructive and always making sure we are doing the best to push with this energy.”