Russell Martin gives his assessment on Southampton’s away defeat in the sixth matchday

After the win over Everton in the Carabao Cup a few weeks ago, manager Russell Martin heaped praise on Southampton’s response after going 1-0 behind in the first half. Martin reflected on the Manchester United match to display the progress made by the Saints and his side followed it with a brilliant performance against Ipswich Town, where they took the early lead despite playing a 1-1 draw. 

Hence, it was widely expected that the recent performances have been a massive boost for Southampton, who will aim to turnaround their underwhelming start to the Premier League season. The Saints started the next fixture against Bournemouth on a good note, but the home side were the better team in terms of scoring goals and creating chances. After the first goal, Southampton didn't put much efforts to comeback in the match and regularly kept on conceding further goals to be 3-0 behind after the first half. 

Russell Martin gives his assessment on Southampton’s away defeat in the sixth matchday

This was far from the expected response from Southampton and manager Russell Martin was clearly unconvinced with his side’s performance, saying,

"We started the game really well, but there was a spell where we stopped doing the stuff we worked on. They then score and the response from us was outrageously poor.

I didn't recognise our team. I didn't like a lot of what I saw, by the lack of spirit and fight."

- Russell Martin

Martin was visibly unhappy with the lack of attempts from Southampton to find a way back in the game, which resulted in their fifth defeat from the first six league matches. The next match is a huge away match against Arsenal, thus the significance of the Bournemouth fixture was huge as this was a big opportunity for the Saints to take a win before the international break. 

On top of that, Southampton will play defending Championship winners, Leicester City as well as Premier League Champions Manchester City in two important matches, which could decide the Saints's Premier League campaign.