EXTRA TIME

Hasenhüttl and Antonio win PL Awards

August 9, 2020 at 9:12 am Leave a comment

Austrian managers have been in the spotlight in England recently: Gerhard Struber sensationally safed Barnsley from Championship relegation with a last gasp win, and some days later Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl made history for his country being the first Austrian to be awarded the Premier League Manager of the Month. And West Ham’s Michail Antonio won the July Player of the Month.

This Sunday is Hasenhüttl’s 53rd birthday and there could not have been a more beautiful present for the Austrian than being named Premier League Manager of the Month for July after an unbeaten run in the last month of the season, with Southampton taking points off Man City with a 1-0 win and Man Utd with a draw along the way.

This is a Happy End to a season which seemed almost over for the Austrian manager in October when Southampton lost 0-9 to Leicester at home. But Hasenhüttl, who had joined the Saints less than one year before in December 2018 after a very successful spell with RB Leipzig, refused to give up and the Board had faith in his ability to turn things round! The club was all but safe of any relegation threat before the lockdown struck, sitting already in 14th place, separated by a five points gap from 15th placed Brighton and seven points ahead of 16-18th placed West Ham, Watford and Bournemouth at that time.

Therefore Hasenhüttl’s Saints did not feature in my post on the relegation run-in, and rightly so! Southampton was one of the best teams post-corona, giving them an 11th-placed finish, their highest for three seasons. Hasenhüttl more than deserves being the first Austrian manager winning the award, seeing off challenges from fellow nominees Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, David Moyes and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Michail Antonio Player of the Month

Though fellow-nominee David Moyes has not been awarded the Manager of the Month, also West Ham can celebrate a Premier League award for its best player of the post-corona re-start: Michail Antonio was nominated PL Player of the Month for July!

The West Ham striker won the prize after scoring eight goals in July, with four of those coming in a single away match against Norwich. He won the prize for the first time after his phenomenal goalscoring in July helped keep West Ham United in the Premier League.

At the end of June, only goal difference was keeping the Hammers out of the bottom three. But Antonio scored eight times and provided an assist in the final seven matches, with David Moyes‘ side winning three and drawing three to finish five points above the relegation zone.

The striker also became the first West Ham player to score four goals in a single Premier League away match, achieving the feat in a 4-0 victory at Norwich City.

Antonio owes this success to a great part to his manager David Moyes who – similarly to what he had done two years before when he changed Marko Arnautovic’s position – moved him up front, after previously being a winger.

“I’d definitely say the switch inspired the form because as a striker you get more opportunities and people are creating the opportunities for you,” says Antonio.

“But I think playing up front is harder too, because you’re playing with your back to games.

“When you’re out wide you get the ball on the sides, you get opportunities to run at defenders so they’re on the back foot, instead of you having your back to play.”

Antonio achieved a Career Ambition with his four-goal haul against Norwich: “I’d never scored a hat-trick before,” he says. “There was one game when I was playing for Southampton [while on loan in 2009/10 League One] against Carlisle.

“I scored two goals in quick succession and Alan Pardew subbed me. He said, ‘I’m trying to sign you. I can’t afford for you to be getting hat-tricks!’ ”

Antonio topped a seven-man July shortlist also featuring Olivier Giroud, Harry Kane, Anthony Martial, Nick Pope, Christian Pulisic and Raheem Sterling.

West Ham won twice against Hasenhüttl’s Saints this season

The Hammers beat Southampton 1-0 away, still under the tenure of Pellegrini (goal: Haller, man of the match Michail Antonio), and won 3-1 in the last game in which a crowd was present at London Stadium with David Moyes at the helm. West Ham’s goals in this match came from Bowen, Haller and, of course, Antonio.

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