Sourced from Daily Echo article
Saints must rediscover their good looks
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MAURICIO Pellegrino knows Saints are perhaps looking ugly right now, but believes a few wins will make them “handsome, with blond hair and blue eyes”.
The under-pressure boss revealed that he and the Saints hierarchy, including chairman Ralph Krueger, had late night talks at St Mary’s after the Brighton draw on Wednesday night, in which they discussed how the club can pull themselves away from the Premier League’s relegation zone.
The Argentine boss, who has led 18th-placed Saints on a winless run of 12 games in the top-flight, knows emotions are running high right now but believes a much-needed victory can change everything quickly - and they can regain their good looks once more.
Ahead of Saturday’s huge match at fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion, he said: “You have to be careful with your analysis because psychologically the belief or the feeling the people have got about some players, about us, about the manager, about the club, about the board, is not the best.
“Football is an emotional game. When you lose everyone is unhappy, when you win everyone looks really handsome, with blond [hair] and blue eyes. But when you lose you are not too handsome.”
“I like the adrenaline, I like the pressure, I like to talk to my players even in a difficult situation like right now,” he continued.
“It’s part of our life. I feel alive in this job, but who wants to be on the side of the loser? Nobody.
“But sometimes, if you want to play the game, you have to lose. You will smell better when you win.”
Pellegrino insists everyone at Saints is pulling in the same direction at this difficult time and spoke about Wednesday night’s meeting at St Mary’s.
“The chairman is here and last night we were talking until midnight all together, trying to give our ideas, trying to hear the people, trying to empathise with everybody,” he said.
“We are confident, we are well prepared, most of our players are physically fit and ready.
“We’ve got preparation and we got a big test Saturday and in two or three weeks everything can change. We don’t need two years.”
He added: “We comment a lot about the players and how we can help turn this situation.
“We are not happy with this and I want good results because I received a lot of support from the beginning. This club and these people deserve more.”
The 46-year-old St Mary’s chief describes a real togetherness at Saints right now.
“No, everybody,” he said, when asked if everyone at the club is pulling in the same direction.
“Because all of us in this club are part of the context.
“My context are my players, the board, the fans, our position and, with some capacity, with some weakness, I am part of the context.
“You can change a couple of players but the context is more or less the same and one person will not be responsible about everything. This is my feeling.”
The West Brom game pitches 18th against 20th in the Premier League and Pellegrino knows it will be huge for their survival hopes.
“It’s an important game for us. Obviously we want to win, especially against teams in this group at the bottom,” he said.
“We must try and win games and move on the season, but we have to think about one game at a time.
“We must use the use positive side of every single game. After the goal (against Brighton) we controlled the game totally, but we need to increase the tempo to try to create more.
“We have to be more aggressive in the final third. Perhaps away we’ll have more space and it might be easier in this aspect.
“At the same time, though, we have to control the opponent. They are really strong in set plays, in counter-attacking play, but I think we are ready to compete.”
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“It’s a massive game for us. We have to go into it with the feeling we are playing a final.” 
