Saturday 5 March 2016 19:48, UK
Southampton played better after being reduced to 10 men in their 1-1 draw with struggling Sunderland at St Mary's, according to manager Ronald Koeman.
The home side had captain Jose Fonte sent off for a professional foul on Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe with 11 minutes remaining on the south coast.
And when substitute Defoe then fired the visitors ahead with an 85th-minute strike, the match appeared over for the Saints, only for Virgil van Dijk to equalise in stoppage time.
"For 85 minutes it was not good or the level I expect of Southampton, at least in ball positions," Koeman said.
"I think at the moment there is a lack of confidence. At the start of the game they made it very difficult for us as they were very well organised defensively.
"Then at least you need players in front to make the difference and we did not have that today. It is not in the last few games the best performance attacking-wise in what we can bring.
"And that is strange about football as when they scored and we had 10 against 11, I think we played the best football with one less player on the pitch. I am thankful for that, as that is really good character, but we had to do better before that."
Koeman, though, had no complaints about the red card shown to Fonte by referee Neil Swarbrick.
"It was a one-on-one situation and if the ref is whistling, then it is a red card as it is a foul," he said. "You are the last man, so OK you have to accept that."
However, the Dutchman was delighted with his side's never-say-die attitude as they went in search of an equaliser in the closing stages.
"And in the last five or six minutes we play for everything," he said. "We put everyone up front and even without the centre-back on the pitch. But it was a great attack which we did not create that chance when it was 11 versus 11.
"So we showed character and quality in the last five minutes and that gave us one point."
But the Saints boss does accept he will now have to work on building up his players' confidence levels after going three Premier League matches without a win during the course of the past week.
"We will give them all the opportunity to show and to give them the confidence to do exercises in training and then they get the confidence back," he said.
"You see how many goals we have scored in the last few games, how many goals the strikers are slowly scoring one by one, and then it is difficult to win the game."
