Schneiderlin happy at Southampton

Schneiderlin has been in-and-out for much of the season, but is enjoying life at Southampton.

“I try to do my best and we’ve got great competition,” he told the Daily Echo.

“When you’re on the pitch, you try to enjoy it.

“I love the way the gaffer wants to play, that’s the way I want to play, passing the ball about.

“I try to do the best as I can, and hopefully it’s enough.

“When I first came it was with Jan Poortvliet. He wanted to play his football, but we were young and everything.

“After that in League One it is more difficult, because teams press you.

“Under Pardew it was more like long balls and get the second balls, and that was not really my game.

“But today, at this moment, we try to play out from the back and that’s how I learned to play football, so of course he has benefited me.”

Schneiderlin admits he is keen to start the game against Middlesbrough on Saturday.

“I know they are a team who pass the ball about well and it’s going to be a tough game,” said Schneiderlin.

“When you are a football player you train every week to play games like that (against West Ham).

“I’m sure it’s going to be a great atmosphere again on Saturday against Middlesbrough.

“I think we showed that we can perform against the big teams and Middlesbrough is one of the big teams.

“So we’ve got to have the same mentality as we had against West Ham and hopefully our quality will make the difference.

“We had this pressure last year, but now we try to forget a bit the league table.

“We know we’ve got a good record at home, and we are going to try to keep this home record against Middlesbrough on Saturday.”