Ronald Koeman has admitted that he is trying to toughen up Juanmi for the rigours of the Premier League, even refusing to award him a foul in training.

Ronald Koeman belives that going forward Juanmi will be a great player for Southampton Football Club, but at the moment he is not up to the physical demands of English football and therefore steps are being taken to toughen him up.

One of those steps is that in training matches, fouls are not awarded to Juanmi, so that he has to get used to the physical abuse he will suffer in an actual game.

“There is progression, because it’s not physically a strong player,”

“The contact on the battles in the midfield or in his position - left, right or behind the striker -you have to play fast, and that needs time to understand and to learn from that.

“We are working hard with Juanmi to show him clips, even last Sunday against Liverpool was one action in the second half.

“If he comes in a physical battle then he don’t win that because he’s fast, small, and he has to understand, and he is understanding because we are helping and he is improving himself.

“If he is on that level he will get his chances.”

Koeman continued:

“Yes, it’s hard first for the player and the second it’s also hard for the manager because you have to make decisions.

“We sign Juanmi as a new player but he’s a young player. Juanmi is 22 and he needs time and we know it’s a big difference about the tempo in the Premier League compared to different leagues. I don’t say the Premier League is stronger than the Spanish competition but it’s different in tempo, in physically what you need. That needs time.

“We speak with Juanmi about that and sometimes I am the referee if we play a game on the pitch and I don’t whistle. I don’t whistle because sometimes he is falling too easy, he needs to be more strong and keep your football out of contacts.

“That we are trying to develop.”

This is a great example of what has become known as "The Koeman Touch",the Dutch manager looks at every little detail and concentrates on improving players rather than just leaving them to rot.

Some managers might well have already have given up on Juanmi and decided that he was a gamble that didnt quite pay off and they would move on, managers like Harry Redknapp and Pochettino seemed to care only for the small elite group who were already up to the standard and anyone else was just making up the numbers.

Koeman is different, he is constantly looking at how he can improve his squad rather than just his little group of starting players

Photo: Action Images

SonicBoom added 10:27 - Oct 28 Surely the black box would have known is limitations before we paid 5 mill for him. His lack of physicality cannot be a surprise.
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bstokesaint added 12:17 - Oct 28 Just proves he wasn't a "mistake" signing as some originally suggested and he was one for the future. From the glimpses I've seen of him, he definitely has a good touch.
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DPeps added 12:19 - Oct 28 Been a bit disappointed with him so far but Mane took time to toughen up so I'm confident Juanmi will turn out to be a good buy
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schatfield added 12:23 - Oct 28 Don't think he has been a disappointment so far, its just he has had better players ahead of him. Now we have a few injuries, he may get his chance tonight. Agree on the above, looks like he has a good touch, but also looks very lightweight and that doesnt work against prem teams who will just push you off the ball.
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BoondockSaint added 13:00 - Oct 28 When I saw the headline I was worried Koeman was dropping him off in Portsmouth in full kit!
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BoondockSaint added 16:57 - Oct 28 I retract that last post as I just read on the Echo site about the poor man in critical condition. Needless to say, it comes off as inappropriate, but I was unaware of the incident as I rarely read the Echo site and get all my team news from here.
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