Russell Martin fumes at his ‘SOFT’ Southampton side and admits he is left ‘hurt and disappointed’ by first-half performance in Bournemouth defeat

Russell Martin branded his Southampton players as ‘soft’ after their dismal 3-1 defeat to Bournemouth.

The Saints trailed 3-0 after 39 minutes and although they got a goal back through Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Martin’s side failed to stage a comeback.

Southampton currently sit 19th in the Premier League and have taken just one point from their six games this season.

Martin was furious after the match and was particularly critical of the body language of his players in the first half.

The Southampton boss added that he was ‘hurt and disappointed’ and also stated that he did not give his players enough tools to respond to setbacks.

Martin was unhappy with the body language of some of his players in the first half

Martin told Sky Sports: ‘I didn’t recognize the body language. I didn’t like that very much. In the second half they showed a lot of fight and courage, but it was too late.

‘I’m really hurt and disappointed by the first half. It’s up to me and I have to give them some tools to respond to the adversity better than we did.

‘Obviously we didn’t learn from the setback in the match against Manchester United, which is a problem.

‘We were soft, so forget the playing style. “If you don’t want to run and fight and make contact, you don’t want to take things personally, we didn’t come out with the ball at all in the first half, then it becomes a problem.”

Martin praised Joe Aribo and Ross Stewart, but felt there was a lack of cohesion within his team.

He said: ‘It’s very clear what we need to do and what the focus should be on, especially with the game we have next weekend.

‘For me it is very clear which people should play. Joe Aribo was excellent when he came on, Ross Stewart wanted the ball, was brave and wanted to fight.

“We need a team on the pitch that we know will fight for everything, regardless of talent and style.

Martin thought substitute Joe Aribo showed good humor after his introduction

Martin’s side have taken just one point from their first six league games this season

“We had a tough time last season and a lot of those characters are in the locker room.

“Maybe they should be back on the field.”

Martin, whose position as Southampton boss will come under greater scrutiny, admitted he has also had to question himself.

He said, “I have to question myself. I thought I had made enough agreements about the way they approached the game and how good they are at certain things, but that clearly wasn’t enough because we looked underprepared, which is insane considering the work we were doing.

“I will never come out here and blame the group of players because we are together. I was hurt by the lack of courage and fight, and I told them so. There’s nothing I haven’t already said in the locker room.

“But I’m the leader, so it’s my problem to solve this.”

‘I couldn’t identify my team in the first half in terms of attitude, spirit and fight. I have come this far in my career, not based on talent, but based on mentality.

Martin admitted he has to ‘question himself’ after the Saints’ dismal performance on Monday night

‘I clearly didn’t pass that on to the players enough tonight. I thought things would turn out fine after the initial setback, but they didn’t, so that’s my problem to solve.

‘I told them at half-time that they had to show that they could really run and fight for us, for the staff and for the supporters who I thought were great.

‘I feel sorry for them after the first half and at least they did that, it took courage. I thank them for that, but I shouldn’t really thank my team for running and fighting.”

Southampton face another tough challenge on Saturday when they travel to play Arsenal.