RALPH Hasenhuttl was left stumped by an opposition defence for the third time in a row on Sunday but defended his team that failed to score past Wolves, saying: “It is not new that strikers coming to us need a bit of time to adapt.”

Adam Armstrong signed as Danny Ings’ replacement for £15million over the summer and got off to a perfect start in Liverpool, giving Saints an early lead at Everton’s Goodison Park with a stunner.

His strike partner, Che Adams, has yet to register a goal during the campaign after his deflected strike against Manchester United was later awarded as a Fred own goal – but after four strikes in the first three Premier League fixtures, Saints haven’t hit the net again.

Hasenhuttl has made it his mission to sure up what was a leaky defence, after his side kept just one clean sheet in the league after the turn of the New Year during a 2020-21 collapse down the table, before letting in six in three to start the season.

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He seemed to have done so with consecutive clean sheets against high-fliers West Ham and reigning champions Manchester City, but has it come at a cost to the team’s own creativity?

After the loss, Hasenhuttl answered: “It is not new that strikers coming to us need a bit of time to adapt to the Premier League.

Daily Echo: Adam Armstrong took 22 minutes to score on his Saints debut but hasn't repeated the trick since (Pic: Stuart Martin)Adam Armstrong took 22 minutes to score on his Saints debut but hasn't repeated the trick since (Pic: Stuart Martin)

“But it’s not only the strikers, we have also tens coming in with good moments to score, the moments today we have to do something more to have a little bit more benefit, some interesting situations where we can always get more out of it.

“It didn’t look like it at first rounds (struggling to score) to be honest, we’ve known that last season we had also situations where we didn’t score. But three in a row is something we have never had so far, last game we scored two goals anyway but three in a row in the Premier League.

“Teams are defending proper and you need something special in some situations to score, and we don’t find this at the moment. Some players are new and have to adapt to the Premier League, some players are not in the right moment at the right place.”

The loss of injured Jack Stephens seemed to remove the element of calm that had enveloped the defence and there were numerous mistouches and moments of confusion at the back against Wolves, before Jan Bednarek – who had defended well – was left for dead by goalscorer Raul Jimenez.

Daily Echo: Che Adams has 13 goals in 71 Premier League appearances (Pic: Stuart Martin)Che Adams has 13 goals in 71 Premier League appearances (Pic: Stuart Martin)

The problem lies with the next international break, coming straight after the visit to Chelsea, meaning Saints could go into the Leeds game on October 16 still without a Premier League win and even in the bottom three.

But Hasenhuttl wants to keep a lid on concerns, adding: “We have scored goals this season so far, we have shown in the last three games it was not there but we have moments where we can score definitely.

“If it was not coming in this situation it would be more worrying, against Man City we had chances, today we had chances but we don’t find the back of the net. We have to push hard and we change this.”