Ralph Hasenhuttl believes Saints fans will see a reaction from their team when they host Liverpool tomorrow after he cancelled the squad’s day off in the wake of the dispiriting defeat at Burnley.

The 3-0 opening day loss at Turf Moor was tough to take for Hasenhuttl and the team who had been building towards the game with a positive pre-season.

However, things unravelled in the space of 12 second half minutes to leave them with no points on the board heading into a daunting first St Mary’s fixture of the campaign at home to Champions League winners Liverpool.

Hasenhuttl scrapped the squad’s scheduled day off and expects the hard work to pay dividends.

He said: “I don’t do it to be nasty to the players or something like that. I do it because I think we have things to work on.

“If you know me then cancel the day off means coming here and we weren’t on the pitch but sitting inside working on a few things in our mind and this is exactly the same importance as the work on the pitch.

“To invest time in my job is normal because we are in the Premier League where we play against the best teams in the world and the only chance to be successful against these teams is to do more than they do. If you do more than they do then you have the chance to be successful.”

The loss at Burnley seems to have dealt a blow to some of the summer optimism that was surrounding a first full season in charge of the club for Hasenhuttl.

However, it was only one game and the Saints boss feels that the challenge of facing a team like Liverpool might actually suit his man after their opening day setback.

“The first game shows a little bit of working hard for six weeks and lose the game doesn’t feel good. In the end it’s the first game of 38 so quite a lot,” he reflected.

“I think it’s good that we see very clear immediately what was missing because it’s a different part to play nice pre-season games and winning them all the way and then the first Premier League game don’t take a point.

“It was 100 per cent necessary to be very critical with ourselves and find the way back to success.

“I know that it’s not easy against the next team but maybe it’s the right opponent at the right time.”