The match between Southampton and Brentford in the English Premier League on January 5th ended with a 0-5 scoreline, with Southampton coming back with a bitter taste in their mouths. After the match, Southampton manager Juric faced the media and analyzed the team's performance in depth.
Juric admitted that it was an extremely bad day for the Southampton team. According to him, the team's performance in the first 30 minutes was disappointing, and despite picking up in the last 15 minutes, the second half performance could be described as disastrous. Juric pointed out that the team was in a rather heavy mood after falling behind in key areas such as high pressing, tackling and creating chances across the board and making a series of errors.
Talking about the problems of his team, Juric admitted that the Southampton side only seemed to be able to sustain a great performance for 15 minutes. He admitted that Brentford performed better in all situations. According to Juric, this is the responsibility of the team, and as a coach, he cannot shirk his responsibility. He stressed that the team must recognize this and come together to try and make a breakthrough in the next competition.
When asked if the team is worse than when he took over, Juric said that Southampton were originally capable of competing with other teams. He recalled his excellent performance against West Ham United, but nowadays, the gap between Southampton and other teams has become more and more obvious.
In response to the fans' dissatisfaction with Juric's substitution of Suleymana, Juric explained that Suleymana played only 55 minutes due to his long absence, but performed reasonably well. He argued that the substitution decision was made based on the player's physical condition and the match situation.
Finally, talking about the issue of reinforcements in the winter window, Juric said that he does not want to talk too much about it at the moment. He revealed that the team will discuss with the club next week on how to improve the status quo. He emphasized that the team needs to be united and work together to overcome the difficulties and try to get out of the doldrums.
