Southampton's Charlie Austin earns praise from Matt Le Tissier and Jamie Redknapp
Sunday 16 October 2016 19:34, UK
Matt Le Tissier and Jamie Redknapp have praised Southampton's Charlie Austin after his man of the match performance on Nissan Super Sunday.
The former QPR man continued his fine form this season as the Saints saw off Burnley 3-1 live on Sky Sports with a double from the striker.
He now takes his tally to seven for the season, and former Southampton front man and club legend Le Tissier believes Austin has given the side a much needed lift in attack.
"One of our problems early on in the season is we were creating chances but there was no one there to stick them in the goal," he said after the game.
"When Charlie came into the side, you could almost see there was a different belief in the team that if a chance falls to him, you've got a very good chance of it going in.
"We had a penalty here a few weeks back and he was fighting with Dusan Tadic to get the ball off him to take it because he just wanted it so badly.
As a striker, you want to get on the scoresheet and it's the easiest chance you're going to get in a football match. They must have sorted out something in the changing room today because there was no arguing, Charlie was on it and finished it nicely."
Redknapp also believes that Austin has progressed since arriving at St Mary's in January 2016, and possesses a similar mentality to one of the Premier League's greatest strikers.
"I've watched Charlie since his Burnley days and I watched him very closely at QPR and he has improved immensely as a player since he has come to Southampton," the Sky Sports pundit added.
"I always thought of Charlie as purely a box player, but what I'm seeing now is a player that's really willing to work hard for the team, to play in wide areas because in the first half, [Nathan] Redmond played as a central striker and he was playing in the wider areas and it wasn't happening for him. He works his socks off and he gets his rewards.
"I'm not comparing him to an Alan Shearer because he was one of the best strikers, but Alan had that mentality that if you miss a chance or opportunity, it doesn't bother him.
"He just thinks 'right, good, give me another one' and that's exactly what Austin's got and that's a gift because they don't care. They get themselves into that six-yard box time and time again.
"There's talk that if we got striking injuries for the England team, the likes of Troy Deeney or Charlie Austin are the next tier down and I don't mean that disrespectfully.
"Charlie at the moment has got more to his game. I watch his movement, there's an improvement, he brings people into play and he scores goals. He's a much better player than the one I saw at QPR."
Le Tissier echoed the thoughts of his punditry partner on Nissan Super Sunday, and also praised Austin for his commitment in attack.
"The mental strength to miss a couple of chances and still want to put yourself in that position is something that gets underestimated a little bit because you'll see some strikers will miss a couple of easy ones and you won't see them get any more chances because they don't want to put themselves in that position. Charlie is nothing like that."
