Dean's debrief: Poor display, mistakes and need for a reaction

Dean Smith spoke to the media at St Mary’s after seeing his side go down 2-0 against Southamtpon.

 

The Aston Villa manager spoke on a number of topics as he picked through the loss to the Saints.

 

Here’s what he had to say…

 

On performance…

 

It was a dreadful performance from start to finish. We wanted to start the game well like we did against Tottenham last week and take heart from that performance, but it wasn’t good enough.

 

I take full responsibility for the performance as the head coach. Nowhere near enough fight in the first half at all.

 

They won most of the duels today and it was a poor performance.

 

On mistakes…

 

We spoke about cutting out individual mistakes, but once they got the goal and the start they wanted, they were on the front foot.

 

We didn’t show enough quality, enough movement or desire to get on the ball.

 

We got punished for it today.

 

On attitude…

 

It was disappointing, especially against a team we could have pulled down towards us.

 

I expect a lot more fight and a lot more passion than the players showed today.

 

They got told that at half-time and we picked up a little bit in the second half, but we were miles off it today.I feel very bad for all the fans that travelled today.

 

On reaction…

 

I said to the players before the game that we’ve got 13 cup finals left.

 

They certainly didn’t play like it today.

 

There were certainly a few players that have played themselves out of the cup final next weekend.

 

We’ve got to go and battle and scrap every step of the way to get points in this league. We didn’t show that today.

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published