Michael Laudrup has stated that he would rather win against Southampton than Chelsea if he was given the choice of only one to win
Despite excellent performances against Manchester City and Liverpool, Laudrup knows what the trip to Southampton means.
“I am more concerned about Southampton, because that is a game against someone in our ‘league’ – and it comes after three games against big clubs,” he said.
“Of course, I want to win both games, but if you said I can only pick one, I would pick Southampton because that is the more important game for us to win.
“We are not competing against Chelsea for a position in the league, but if we can go and win at Southampton we will be three points better off and it will be fewer points for them.
“I always prefer to beat the other teams from our ‘league.’ What we do against the big clubs is a bonus.
“I have seen it so many times – teams struggling the week after they face one of the big clubs.
“They play well against the big team, but then nine times out of 10 they lose the next game.
“The press say how fantastic you are if you do well against the big club, but then a week later you lose without a problem in the next game.
“There is less tension for that game. It is maybe only a five per cent difference, but that is enough (to lose).
“I am not really concerned about this game because I know we will perform well.
“The games against big clubs are different, with a different way of playing.
“I have seen it many times – every smaller team wants to say to the big boys ‘Look what we can do’. That happens all over the world.
“I remember with the teams I managed in Spain when we had to play Barcelona or Real Madrid, you don’t have to motivate the players.
“When smaller teams play the big clubs, they think ‘we know they are better than us, so we have to be 100 per cent in everything we do. If not, they will just destroy us.’
“But if we get a positive result everyone will be talking about us.
“I’m sure you will see a very good performance but if it’s enough to get one point or three we’ll see,” added Laudrup.
“More or less I know the team they will start with, we know there is a lot of quality in the starting 11 and also on the bench.
“In many ways it is like we saw last Saturday against Manchester City.
“The quality of forwards they have, it is possible for them to do anything – Mata, Hazard and Oscar is not a big secret.
“But when you play the big teams they attack you and sometimes it gives you more space.
“The downside is when they do have the ball they have so much quality they can hurt you.
“We have to be compact and when we have the ball we try to play like we did on Saturday and Wednesday and, of course, the difference this time is that we play at home.”
