With disappointments for Everton over the festive and New Year period, manager Marco Silva was looking for his side to register back to back victories as we made the trip to St Mary’s Stadium earlier this afternoon to face a rejuvenated Southampton.
Everton were poor again though and with the scores tied at the half-time break, Southampton were simply better in the final 45 and they opened the scoring five minutes into the second period. A Lucas Digne credited own goal in minute 64 gave them the two goal advantage and at this stage we had only registered four efforts at goal, with only one of those actually testing their goalkeeper.
🗣 | "A bad performance. We didn't create enough."
Marco on the importance of making possession count: https://t.co/wou7aHcysL pic.twitter.com/iIpgClnMpm
— Everton (@Everton) January 19, 2019
Everton had no response in reality though and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s stoppage-time effort at least gave the travelling fans something to briefly celebrate, but it’s another defeat with a 2-1 scoreline.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, Silva said of the game.
“When you lose like we lost this afternoon we are not happy, we didn’t perform well and they deserved three points. When you analyse the match that’s what happened. I have given feedback to the players. They (Southampton) are giving everything to get out of danger zone so it is important we give the same. You can put quality on the pitch but they were better than us in the first half, we started better second half, but then they had a fantastic goal and they were on top. Our players kept trying to create chances but couldn’t score. First-half we didn’t create at all, we were faster second-half and more aggressive with fast decisions. Then their goal changes the game again.”