Pell: Saints deserved Yosh blast

MAURICIO PELLEGRINO says Southampton defender Maya Yoshida was right to lay into his sinning Saints.

Yoshida (above) blasted his team-mates after their 5-2 hammering at Tottenham on Boxing Day, and even claimed they had got WORSE since Pellegrino became manager.

The Argentine coach, who replaced the sacked Claude Puel in the summer, said: “The players are the first ones that realise we are not performing well.

“We have got a critic’s spirit in our dressing room. Maya is one of the captains – he assumes responsibility and wants to bounce back from the situation.

“Maya is always the guy who is constructive and always making sure we are doing the best to push with this energy.”

Saints travel to Manchester United today with pressure mounting on Pellegrino after a woeful run of only one win in their last 11 matches.

Pellegrino, who this week sold Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool for £75million, said: “The first thing is to try and clean our minds and start doing simple things.

“The next couple of games we need to defend better, start to be more solid, more consistent and boost confidence little by little.

“In some games we have played well, but could not score more goals. This is one of the main problems. We have made a lot of individual mistakes too.

“Now we have to bounce back. The minimum is character and personality, and after the other footballing things will return.

“We have to react and, hopefully, we can change our mentality and do our talking on the pitch with actions.

“We have got the capacity to react and compete well. I know my players have good energy and they want to bounce back.”