Southampton's new boss Nathan Jones has declared his mission is to create an identity with his squad.

The man who replaced Ralph Hasenhuttl enjoys working with young players and wants to develop his team.

With World Cup participants Mohammed Salisu and Armel Bella-Kotchap back in the squad, Jones knows they must step up preparations as the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day.

“Before it becomes my team as such, we still have to do a lot of work, but we want to put a stamp on it, we want to be a certain kind of team and play that way," he said to club media.

“If we can do that, I'll be very pleased. I'm excited to be in the Premier League and at a wonderful club like Southampton.

“We've been welcomed in the most fabulous way so I'm excited about the second-half of the season; we all want to work at the highest level and the Premier League is that. I want to make sure I'm successful at this level."

Jones added: “It's been a really important week for me to get to know everyone and do some good structural work, getting amongst the lads has been vital.

“The timing was key with that and the weather hasn't been as good as we liked but the work we've done will stand us in good stead for the second-half of the season.

“I feel there is a real buy-in, a real work rate and we're going to have to do certain things differently if we want to become the team we want to become but they've taken that on board.

“It's not going to happen overnight, we need to work, but the early signs are they are very open-minded. We knew they wanted to work hard because under the previous manager they worked hard."