TO GET AHEAD... GET YOUR HEAD ON IT
Saints boss Jones moans at another set-piece disaster: At my old club... we were the best at it
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IF it’s tough at the top, it is simply savage at the bottom.
After three consecutive hard-fought victories in all competitions, Southampton’s fortunes seemed to have changed. Yet they still find themselves at the foot of the Premier League – staring up at their relegation rivals – after this defeat to Aston Villa.
Referee Michael Salisbury left the field to a deafening chorus of boos after chalking off a Saints goal in either half, but there is just no escaping that Nathan Jones and his tentative players must accept an equal share of the blame for their fate on Saturday.
Jones’ formation-changing triple substitution after an hour – in which three of his standout performers in Samuel Edozie, Che Adams and Romeo Lavia were withdrawn – blunted the hosts in attack and enabled Villa to assert control.
Teenage talent Edozie’s raw trickery and unpredictability had repeatedly troubled his marker Alex Moreno.
Rejuvenated frontman
Adams had roughed up Tyrone Mings while 19-year-old midfield maestro Lavia displayed wonderful close control to complement his impressive range of passing in the centre of the park.
To make matters worse, the sucker-punch winner by Ollie Watkins (right) came courtesy of a glaring lapse in concentration from the home side as they failed to defend a set-piece.
That was something Saints had been working on “aggressively” in Friday’s final training session, according to agitated boss Jones.
He said: “We are going against processes. I came from Luton Town, and we were the best in the league at it.”
Considering struggling Southampton are fighting tooth and nail to survive, this was concrete evidence they are failing to learn from their mistakes after also conceding via a corner in the 2-1 win at Everton the previous weekend.
Devastated Croatia centre-back Duje Caleta-car is refusing to accept such sloppy standards as he questioned the application of his St Mary’s team-mates.
“First, we make stupid fouls and then we don’t defend set-pieces well and I don’t know the reason,” he said. “We need to do better because in the Premier League, actions like this can cost us the game. That’s exactly what happened.
“We deserved at least one point. It’s very disappointing.
“I feel angry and a lot of emotion is going through my head. It was a great opportunity for us to get off the bottom of the table and we didn’t take this chance.” The
Saints had hoped to use recent cup victories over Crystal Palace and Manchester City as a springboard to overhaul their wretched Premier League form, but this was a sobering reality check after previously delivering the goods at Goodison Park. Caleta-car is already relishing the chance to wipe the slate clean in tomorrow’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg against Newcastle.
“We now need to forget this setback and turn things around,” he added. “We know we have two semi-final games and we are one step closer to the final.
“We want to fight for the trophy and I really hope we deliver a better performance.
“This defeat hurts a lot because we expected more and we just weren’t at our best level. That’s the reason why we lost.”