Ralph Hasenhuttl insists he is better prepared for the January transfer window after Saints’ 3-1 defeat to Manchester City.

Hasenhuttl made six changes to the team and had a look at a number of players he hadn’t fielded before as he rotated the squad to add freshness to the team in the busy festive schedule.

For Hasenhuttl it was an important learning experience.

“I knew it from the beginning when I was coming here. I knew exactly what a brutal schedule is waiting for us in the first weeks,” he admitted.

“To prepare a new team, to know the new players, how they play and what they can do for you and that’s an important part today to give players a chance. I saw them only for now just practicing and not under pressure in a Premier League game.

“If I want to make decisions in January about new transfers I need to know everyone in the team.

“Therefore, I need the impressions that I got and it’s an important game for me.

“I saw a young Kayne Ramsay who made a good job, I saw Prowsey performed really well and that’s important for me so I can make decisions in January.”

Hasenhuttl confessed he was prepared to make a raft of half time changes before Saints conceded twice late in the first half against City, at which point he decided to keep players fresh for Chelsea on Wednesday night.

“We saw a game against a very strong Manchester City,” he reflected. “The first 20 minutes I think we had no chance. It was a dominating Manchester.

“Suddenly after 20 minutes after we scored you saw they are not really in this perfect performance period and they showed a few mistakes that they also made in the game.

“We have spoken about this early pressing situation because they take a lot of risks to build up their game and if we are sharp in those moments and try to find the right moment to attack we can maybe win the ball very early and score and that’s what we did. A fantastic goal from Pierre.

“That gave us a little bit of hope that maybe we can bring a sensation.

“The smell comes that soon it is going away after two horrible mistakes shortly before the break and it was too easy how we gave it away in this moment.

“We have to talk about these situations because it’s the second time after the West Ham match we gave it away in a kind that is too easy.

“That changed everything because if you go into half time at 1-1 we were thinking about Ings, Redmond and maybe Armstrong in to get a little bit more offensive power on the pitch. After 3-1 we decided to look forward because we have the next game against Chelsea and to give energy away in this game didn’t make sense.”