Southampton manager Ivan Juric challenges his flops to ‘not be the worst team in Premier League history’

Southampton manager Ivan Juric appears to have abandoned any notion of a great escape. 

Instead, the Croatian has set his players a more humble challenge: to avoid becoming ‘the worst team in the history of Premier League‘.

That’s the task now for the Saints, who have accumulated just nine points from 29 Premier League games and sit last in the table, 17 points from safety.

Staying up is mathematically possible – there are still 27 points on offer – but they would need to win most of their remaining nine games to have a realistic chance of avoiding the drop. After just two league wins this season, it’s a big ask. 

Derby County hold the tag for the worst Premier League season to date, having notched just 11 points in the 2007-08 season.

‘The team has to be competing and try to do our best. We have to be really motivated,’ said Juric. 

Southampton have picked up nine points from 29 games and have lost 11 of their last 12 

Derby County are the worst in Premier League history, having picked up 11 in 2007-08 (pictured: manager Billy Davies)

 ‘I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of Premier League.

‘If we can be not the last on the table, we have to do our best, so in this moment, this is our goal. I think we are in good shape, we can do it and we will try to win the match.’

Southampton welcome Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening but may find it a tall order having lost 11 of their previous 12 games. 

Juric was appointed on December 21 to replace Russell Martin and said he was ‘very optimistic’ as he was unveiled. 

The Croatian drew his first match 0-0 away at Fulham but has lost every league game since then besides a 2-1 win at fellow promotees Ipswich Town.

Even Ipswich and Leicester City will be hard to catch, with both of those sitting eight points ahead of Saints. 

If all three go down, it will be just the third time in history that all the newly promoted clubs have been relegated, but it also happened last campaign in what many see as a sign that the gulf between the Championship and Premier League is increasing.