Mauricio Pellegrino Admits Defensive Errors Proved Costly in 3-0 Defeat to Liverpool

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino was left to lament his side's defensive mistakes which allowed Liverpool to cruise to a 3-0 victory on Saturday. 

The Reds capitalised on a moment of misjudgement from Dusan Tadic to open the scoring through Mohamed Salah, whose second goal alongside Philippe Coutinho's ensured the Saints have just one win in their last seven. 

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Despite having an optimistic outlook prior to his side's trip to Anfield, Pellegrino says his side still have a lot to improve to eradicate the types of mistakes which proved costly against Liverpool. 

The Saints boss told Sky Sports following the game: "After conceding the second goal it was difficult for us to get back into the game. We made a couple of mistakes which you cannot do against this kind of team.

"In the second half, it was even more difficult. We started well, but we never created many chances to score.

"With the first goal, we knew Liverpool would be aggressive, but after losing it in the final third, maybe we can improve this in the next few games.

"We tried to keep the ball but we couldn't. Liverpool had more pace than us and we have to learn for the future how to play this kind of game."

Although his squad was decimated during the international break, Pellegrino resisted the urge to blame the lack of training time, instead looking towards the Everton game as a chance to rediscover their winning form.

He added: "For us, we lost more than 50 per cent of the squad, but it's part of football and we have to adapt.

"Football has something good, because when you lose, you play again in seven days. We will try to do our best against Everton."