Southampton manager Russell Martin didn’t mince words when he labelled the errors costing his team as “madness” following their 1-0 loss at Aston Villa. The decisive moment occurred in the 24th minute when Diego Carlos’ long pass led to a mix-up between Nathan Wood and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, allowing Jhon Duran to take control and coolly chip the ball over Joe Lumley.
Despite Nathan Wood’s later heroics preventing Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins from scoring, the Saints suffered their fourth defeat in five matches. Martin expressed his exasperation with his side conceding what he views as another avoidable goal.
“Another mistake and not a shot on target is madness really,” lamented Martin. He acknowledged the team’s good play but pointed out their habit of gifting leads to opponents through easy goals.
“At some point when a team scores a really good goal and a bit of individual quality, you can maybe accept it, but the goals are just so poor.”
He continued, “It’s madness. It’s just those fine lines that hurt us too many times and the goals we concede are just so poor. The effort was brilliant.”
Martin also commented on Harwood-Bellis’ involvement in the error: “I love Taylor (Harwood-Bellis) and I don’t want to criticise him, but what happened can’t happen, so you either smooth the game out and pass or defend and clear it and we do neither.”
In a stark admission, Martin reflected on Southampton’s performance, saying, “We don’t have enough conviction or quality and decision-making in the final third at the moment.”
He then added his concerns about player confidence: “I don’t know what more I can give the players to make them believe or that extra spark. ” Speaking on the club’s bottom league position and recent challenges, he remarked, “When you’re bottom of the league, there have been tough games recently, some quality opposition, tough results; it’s been interesting to say the least and difficult to deal with.”
Meanwhile, a thrilled Unai Emery showered praise on Duran after he found the net on his first Premier League start this season. His thoughts on the player: “Fantastic; he’s progressively helping us with everything—scoring goals, working,” Emery noted before commending his response to the demands placed on him: “We are very demanding with him; how we want him to respond on the field and today he did the work.”
Elaborating further on Duran’s progress, Emery stated, “We are happy for him and adding one more player scoring goals and doing the work we need. ” Addressing Duran’s temperament, Emery said, “He listens and we had to try to stop his impassioned moments sometimes, but that’s natural because he’s young; he wants everything quick and the process he has we are doing. Today he scored a goal, but what was most important was how he worked.”
