The Saints fell to a humbling defeat at St Mary’s Stadium against their south coast rivals.
Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has given his verdict on his side’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth on Friday night, singling out four players for their efforts in the Premier League loss at St Mary’s Stadium (official Southampton website).
The Saints slipped to 11th in the table ahead of the bulk of the weekend fixtures as they struggled in the beginning and found themselves two down at half time, Nathan Ake heading home in the 10th minute and Harry Wilson’s sweeping in from Phillip Billing’s pass to double the visitors’ advantage.
Although James Ward-Prowse struck a penalty early in the second half to halve the deficit, Bournemouth held on right until the end and were even gifted a third in injury time, a breakdown in communication between Southampton goalkeeper Angus Gunn and Jan Bednarek left Callum Wilson with an open goal.
Reflecting on the change in formation he made at half-time – moving to 4-3-3 – Hasenhuttl went on to praise Nathan Redmond, Sofiane Boufal, Che Adams and Danny Ings for their efforts, while also lamenting the absence of Moussa Djenepo.
He told the official Southampton website: “With the three centre midfield players we were winning more second balls in the centre, they did a good job in the second half, invested a lot and were very aggressive.
“The transition offensively was sometimes good but sometimes took a little bit too long. I think we can play quicker and deeper. With Moussa we would’ve had another option, but I think Nathan and Sofiane did a good job, Che tried everything and Ingsy had chances to score with a few blocked shots. But it wasn’t enough today – we have to accept it.”
Southampton had started the game with right-back Cedric Soares at left-back and a central defender in Kevin Danso at right-back, while England left-back Ryan Bertrand was left on the bench, but it proved a poor decision by Hasenhuttl as his defence was picked apart, the half-time changes yielding an improvement.
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