Press Conference round-up: Jurić outlines Saints vision

On the opportunity to come to the Premier League...

“I’m delighted to be here. The Premier League is the best league in the world and I think it’s a great opportunity to see the best players, the stadiums, everything. I had some contact two years ago, which was the first time I started thinking about Southampton. I was the coach of Torino and I stayed there, but I always liked thinking about [Southampton] and I liked watching lots of the games. Last year I was very interested in Southampton, and I know lots of the players because of that. Two years ago I was watching a lot and last year a little bit. This year I was watching – it was my wish to come here.”

On the team he has inherited...

“I was watching all of the games this year and I know a lot. I saw some good things and maybe some bad things, but I think the team has potential and can do much better than they are doing now. That’s one of the reasons why I am here, because I am very optimistic that we can do it better, we can play better. I saw the talent and I think we can be better, improve ourselves and start to take points.”

On keeping the club in the Premier League...

“I know it will be a very tough job and I know that in the history nobody has stayed in the Premier League from this situation. But like I said, there is a lot of good players and we can be much better in some moments of the games. I’m optimistic, really optimistic. Even the other day [against Fulham] I saw the mentality. It was the first step to doing better and I think we can do something exceptional. The guys have to be very motivated to do something that nobody ever did.”

On first messages to the players...

“They don’t know me but I know them. I said that I believe in them, they have quality, they can do it. Be positive, work hard and everything is possible.”

On the style he hopes to bring to the team...

“It’s a high-pressure style, even with possession. But what I want from my team is to be very competitive, solid and, with time, getting better in the possession and attacking. But the first thing I want is that we are competitive in every game. Like I said, even the other day I saw good things from the team, and this is the way we have to do it. Maybe people don’t know a lot about my way with Torino and Verona because we didn’t play in Europe, but the style is the Atalanta style. If you watch their game against Arsenal, or last year against Liverpool, we want to press high and play good – a little bit of everything.”

On preparing for West Ham...

“We already analysed a little bit of West Ham. In some ways it’s similar like Fulham – very good players, very fast players, but I believe that Southampton can do a good game and that we can win.”

On how he spends time away from football...

“I’m not a golfer. It’s not a game for me – I’m a little bit more aggressive! Now it’s important to work hard, to understand everything that’s happened. There’s a lot of work to do and after that my wife will come and I will see what to do out of work.”

On being a fan of heavy metal music...

“When I was young I liked death metal music a lot – my style of football is like death metal music. Now a little bit less, I’m a little bit soft now, but it’s always in my head, good metal music.”

On influencing the Fulham game...

“We had a little bit of talks, but nothing else.”

Jurić watched from the stands on Sunday as Saints battled to a goalless draw at Fulham

On aspiring to come to the Premier League...

“More as a coach. As a player, I didn’t have the physicality to be a Premier League player, but as a coach it is the best league in the world with the best players, the best coaches. The Italian league is very tactical, but it was always my dream to come here. I think for everybody it’s a dream to come here.”

On Premier League managers that have inspired him...

“I was a great fan of [Marcelo] Bielsa when he was at Leeds, I was watching lots of games from him. The style of football is not the same, but I like the way he thinks about football.”

On the upcoming transfer window...

“We have this time to understand good things that we need, and then I will talk to the club and we will see what we can do. It’s almost my first day, so I want to watch the players that we have first, and then decide. Everybody is optimistic, they think that we can do it, and of course if there is the possibility to change something, we will change. It’s easy to say ‘I want new players’ but I think we really have good potential and I want to see in these days what we have, and start working. My life was that: they give me the players and I improve them. This is what I want to do here in Southampton.”

On already having high-energy young players to implement his style...

“I think they can do it. They are young, they are positive, they want to work hard. It’s not easy to change the style immediately. We have to be clever not to throw away everything they did in the past, but try to put some other things [in place].”

Embracing his mentor, the current Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini

On positives from the Fulham performance...

“The mentality. Southampton was a solid team, a good team. We didn’t create a lot, but it was a team, a competitive team, and for Fulham it was not easy to beat us.”

On why he still wanted the job despite the team’s league position...

“Like I said, Southampton was a little bit of a dream, the Southampton opportunity. I was thinking that life is short and I want to try new things, see another way of working, put myself in a difficult situation. That’s it.”

On the influence of Gian Piero Gasperini...

“I was working with him a lot – as a player, as an assistant coach and he had a big influence on me. My football seems a little bit like Atalanta’s style. I like it: work hard, press hard, play good, big intensity, all this stuff. I did this for the last five or six years and we did a very good job with Verona and Torino – you could see they are a little bit like Southampton, but we were always on the left side (top half) of the table. I think I can do it here in Southampton, the same thing.”

On managing with a modest budget and outperforming expectations...

“We can be like that, but what I really like to do is improve the players. I am obsessed with that. You give me a player whose value is five [million], after one year his value is eight [million]. I like to work, I like to analyse everything, to be in tight contact with the players and have satisfaction that if individual players are getting better and the team is getting better, we are better.”