Ronald Koeman spoke to the media after Southampton's 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at St Mary's. Here's what the Saints boss had to say:
On what went wrong against Manchester City…
Our start in the second half was better than the first but we know if you make mistakes you will be punished for that, even when it was 11 vs 10 we make mistakes and they scored two goals more. That’s not good, we knew we had to be good to have a good result today, but I think in our ball possession in the beginning was not good, we defended well, we had good organisation, they didn’t create opportunities but when I thought in the second half little by little we will do more pressing to win the game it was 1-0. It was not good enough today, that is what I have to say.
On whether the injury to Morgan Schneiderlin made the job harder…
Maybe, it is always a little bit influence in the game because he’s an important player for us. We don’t have 24 players what they have to change in the second half for example, we know that, but if you do these kind of mistakes, maybe the first goal was a little bit unlucky, you have to be good to have a good chance of a point or three points and it wasn’t.
On people saying Saints won’t finish in the top four after this game…
They write of today, because we didn’t show something different but if we are fifth in the league still we are very happy but Wednesday we will get a new opportunity to show the qualities, there is no time to be disappointed, we did too many mistakes and we were punished because they have a very strong team, we knew that before and we saw it today.
On whether Sergio Aguero should have had a penalty…
Maybe it is a penalty but I think the reason the referee didn’t give the penalty is that he understand after why he give a foul to [Victor] Wanyama and a yellow card because it was a fantastic tackle on the ball and that was a mistake, maybe Aguero was his second mistake. He tried to keep a balance for both teams, if you give the first foul a yellow card that means a lot for the rest of the game, it wasn’t a game for three yellow cards in 20 minutes.
On the attacking display from his team against Manchester City…
If I look to my team I think maybe two or three players reach the level what they can show, Toby Alderweireld played fantastic today, we had a good organisation. In an attacking way it is more difficult to create chances like we do against Manchester City and that was not good enough, they show us that difference today. I said today because after this season we can say what we really are.
On the lessons learned and whether Saints gave Man City too much respect…
Every opponent is different, I think the Chelsea and Man City are the two strongest teams in the Premier League and we have to be good to have a good result, once again, it wasn’t good enough.
I don’t think so, normally our ball possession is one of our qualities, you have to be confident in that, in the first ten minutes we were nervous, that is not good, it makes them stronger, after 20 minutes it was more comfortable.
On whether there is more pressure on his side now…
The pressure is a little bit more higher than in the start of the season but we put the pressure to ourselves to show our qualities in our way of playing, we realise it is more difficult against these kind of teams. But not more pressure because we know we are a team growing up and it is difficult to beat these kinds of teams.
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