IF Sami Hyypia is feeling under pressure he certainly is not showing it.

It was business as usual, or more to the point Sami as usual, at Albion’s training complex in Lancing yesterday morning.

The punctual Finn was customarily bang on time for his press conference ahead of tonight’s visit to Huddersfield.

He looked and sounded fine, as normal, clean-shaven, no signs of tiredness, no mood swing following his team’s latest setback against Middlesbrough at the Amex on Saturday.

Hyypia spent 20 minutes answering questions, half of it and half of them posed by The Argus.

He was polite, open and honest about the situation facing him 15 matches into his reign as Albion’s manager.

It is the 12 in the Championship that really matter. The Capital One Cup fourth round trip to Tottenham at the end of the month is a nice diversion, attained by progressing past lower league opposition in Cheltenham, Swindon and Burton Albion, but it’s just a sideshow.

Hyypia needs a win at Huddersfield or at home to Rotherham on Saturday, not at Spurs, to soothe mounting speculation over his future.

His first experience of being a sole No.1 ended at Bayer Leverkusen in April after a run of one win and a draw – against the bottom team in the Bundesliga – in 13 matches, which dropped them out of the Champions League places into fifth.

Albion head for Huddersfield tonight without a win in eight league games and fifth-bottom.

Hyypia said: “Last year I was in this situation. We were playing okay and didn’t get results. That ended up in dismissal but, as I’ve said before, I don’t look at the table.

“To be honest, I don’t even know which place we are at the moment and I don’t even like to know. I think it’s more important what we do here.

“I know it’s not very nice or good that we are in this kind of position but we can’t help it, can’t turn the clock back. The only thing we can do is try to improve as individuals, try to improve as a team, and I am sure the results will come.

“When you analyse the games in many we haven’t been the worst side on the field so that’s promising. I would be very, very concerned if we played badly, then were in this kind of position.”

The only time Hyypia betrayed any sense of feeling under the cosh, frustrated and to an extent helpless, was in response to my enquiry about the psychological impact of a bad result as a manager compared to when he was playing. The answer from the former Liverpool stalwart was detailed and intriguing.

“As a player I took a lot of responsibility for the results,” Hyypia said. “Of course, it’s nothing to compare with this situation.

“As a player you are one of the 20 or 25 whose task is to do a job on the field. I felt a big responsibility when I was on the field. If I played badly it hurt very badly and I felt pride for my job. It was my job to win football games, to keep my level in every game.

“Some people had faith in me to do the job they had given me and if I didn’t do it perfectly or almost perfectly – everyone makes mistakes and they are acceptable – but if I had a bad game I felt I let the people down who had faith in me.

“In this profession now, this new career, I have a big responsibility for the results, that’s for sure. Everything we have done and do from now on I have all the responsibility that we get into a better position and start to win games.

“I think the influence I have now to get into the better position or improve things is much less than as a player.

“As a player, when we were playing and we needed to change something or somebody was struggling with form or concentration or whatever, I could go next to the player in the game situation and pull his shirt a little bit. ‘Hey, come on’ and try in a positive way to help him get his form back or on top of his game.

“But now as a manager, when you are on the sidelines, it’s sometimes frustrating. You try to tell somebody something and there’s no chance they are going to hear or anything.

“You can pass on information through a player but it is sometimes somehow stuck on the way as well, so I think it’s taking a bigger toll when we are in this kind of situation as a manager than as a player.

“But that’s quite normal. Now we have a lot of games and it’s 24-7 football. This situation doesn’t help.

“My pride and dedication to do this job won’t let me switch off a lot, because I am thinking all the time what we can do better. That sometimes takes a lot of energy from you but I have chosen this profession, nobody forced me to do this.”