Taylor Harwood-Bellis: Room to improve but struggling Saints need to keep faith

Taylor Harwood-Bellis says Southampton’s players cannot allow a winless start to the Premier League season to affect their belief under Russell Martin, insisting “we’ll keep our feet on the ground and our head screwed on.”

Saints sit in 19th spot after picking up just one point from their first seven matches back in the top flight since winning promotion through the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.

However, Defender Harwood-Bellis, who is expected to captain Ben Futcher’s England Under-21s in their Euro 2025 qualifier against Ukraine on Friday, is refusing to let poor results damage morale at St Mary’s.

The former Manchester City academy graduate told reporters: “There’s always room for improvement. We just need to keep believing in what the manager wants us to do.

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“We’ve got some good characters in there so we’ll keep our feet on the ground and our head screwed on.

“There’s no rollercoasters. Whether we lose four on the bounce or win four on the bounce, we’re not going to get too low or too high.

“It’s maintaining the same mentality of ‘get better’. That’s the mentality the manager gives us, it’s embedded now and that’s not going to change.

“I’m just trying to be better than I was yesterday. We’ve had a tough run of results and I want to make myself a better player to help the team.”

England U21s sit second in Group F of Euro 2025 qualifying, five points behind Friday’s opponents Ukraine, who inflicted a last-gasp 3-2 defeat on them in Kosice last October.

Ukraine have won all eight of their matches in the group but Harwood-Bellis is targeting a three-point haul at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium on Friday.

“They’re a good side who beat us away,” the 22-year-old said.

“They’re an organised team, we’ve worked hard this week to prepare properly and hopefully it’s enough to win the game.

“We want to win every game, not just because we got beat at their place but because it’s important for the group for us to win and qualify, so we’ll prepare like every game.”

Futcher’s October camp with the U21s is his second since he took over from Lee Carsley – currently in interim charge of the England senior team – in the summer.

He said: “There’s been changes to the group (since last year’s defeat to Ukraine).

“We don’t see it as revenge but another opportunity to put in a good performance. We need to make sure we perform well and get the result.”