Friday 4 March 2016 18:42, UK
Ronald Koeman has warned Southampton need a change of attitude to salvage their hopes of European football next season.
Successive defeats to Chelsea and Bournemouth have seen Saints slip to ninth in the Premier League table, seven points behind fifth-placed Manchester United.
And Koeman has taken the uncharacteristic step of publicly criticising his players ahead of Saturday's game against Sunderland.
He said: "Normally I like to defend my players, I am enjoying my role as the manager of this club, but sometimes you need to say what you think at that moment.
"The start of the Bournemouth game was not good and if you start like that you cause yourself problems. They are not stupid, they know they were not good on Tuesday.
"You have to change your mentality, you have to change your attitude. We need a good game this Saturday
"The Premier League is really a tough competition, if you are not 100 per cent prepared then you do not win. You need to keep your attitude level up and then your individual qualities but every game you need to be giving 110 per cent.
"We lost two in a row and now we have to go with confidence to win games because we want to get into Europe. It is still achievable, fighting for Europe, but we need a good run, after two defeats we need to win and that is the pressure we have this Saturday.
"We do not have the possibilities like the other teams, it is more difficult but qualifying for Europe would be fantastic."
