Ruben Selles: Carlos Alcaraz feels guilty after knee-slide goal celebration
- Planet Sport writer
- 10 March 2023
Southampton boss Ruben Selles says Carlos Alcaraz has been feeling guilty after injuring himself with his knee-slide goal celebration against Leicester.
Alcaraz's winner last weekend lifted Saints off the bottom of the Premier League for the first time since before the World Cup break.
But Alcaraz, who joined from Argentina's Racing Club in January, had to be withdrawn after damaging his knee celebrating his second Southampton goal and is a doubt for Sunday's trip to Manchester United.
"You know they are young players and they need to learn those situations," Selles said of the 20-year-old midfielder.
"It was the emotion of the moment. He has been feeling a little bit guilty, but let's see if he can make it or not (to Old Trafford).
"He made training (on Friday) and we still need to see if he will be in the squad or not.
"If he is not fit for the game, he will for sure (be fit) for the midweek game against Brentford.
"I say many times, we are learning together and that is learning for him."
Southampton have won two of their three league games under Selles since the Spaniard replaced Nathan Jones last month.
The Leicester win saw them hurdle south-coast neighbours Bournemouth and came on the back of a 1-0 victory at Chelsea and defeat away to Leeds by the same scoreline.
Selles said: "We need to be better than the last game and we need to be better day to day.
"We have some moments, especially using the wide triangles, where we can be better and we just need to improve.
"How do we make our pressure (count), which are the triggers? Get everybody with a little better understanding of what we are doing and I expect a better version of us."
Former England striker Theo Walcott made his second league start of the season against Leicester, playing for over an hour in the 1-0 success at St Mary's.
The 33-year-old's only previous came in the 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle in November.
Selles said: "It's obvious he brings expertise and relations. It's not only about the relation to be a friend of somebody.
"It's a football relation to know the movement of a player to your right and to your left and to know the movement of the opponent.
"Secondly he brings expertise to that number 10 position we are using, he's a player who knows how to press in that system and is also aware of the mental game.
"How to speed it up, how to slow it down. That's what he does."
Selles confirmed full-backs Juan Larios and Tino Livramento would not be available against United and would be out "for the next weeks".
