Saints head coach Tonda Eckert heaps praise on ‘clever’ Southampton defender after fifth clean sheet in six home games

Saints have leaked four goals since Manning replaced the injured Welington a month and a half ago, helping them climb into the play-off places.

Manning’s defensive contributions have been questioned previously, but Eckert believes the Irish international is living up to his high demands.

Saturday’s 2-0 win over Oxford United saw Saints keep a third clean sheet in as many home games, much to the delight of their German boss.

“If you want clean sheets, you need every single player in every moment of the game. Ryan is not the type who just rushes into tackles,” said Eckert.

“But he’s a clever defender. He has a high football intelligence to understand moments of the game.

“We demand a lot from him. I think he’s living up to that at the moment.

“[Keeping clean sheets] is a constant process, something that we work on and we demand a lot from the players on the pitch.

“Since the Sheffield United game, there’s only two games where we’ve conceded from open play.

“Leicester in the first half and Charlton from outside the box.

“Four of the other games we’ve conceded on set-pieces, which in this league is not always easy to control. The games are so different.

“Some you win on the ball, some on transition, some on a set-piece. The league demands different ways of playing.

“I’m very happy that we keep pushing towards clean sheets. Obviously, you need a goalkeeper every now and then, and we had that as well.

“We just need to keep pushing, keep confirming that, because it’s going to be a big block of games coming up.”