Ralph Hasenhuttl rues Southampton defensive mistakes which led to Cardiff City defeat

New Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl criticised his Saints side for their sloppy defending which led to their 1-0 away defeat to Cardiff City on Saturday.

The result sees Southampton firmly rooted in the Premier League relegation zone, moving relegation rivals Cardiff up to 14th in the league and five points clear of Saints.

“At this level you cannot give the ball away twice in that manner,” Hasenhuttl said following the match.

“It is very hard to accept that we didn’t get a point, but with these mistakes we don’t deserve it.

“After half-time was the best period of the game for us.

“We had a lot of pressure and we were good with the ball, but we played too much from deep and inside instead of penetrating them.

“We need more forward runs in the coming months and less mistakes in the defence.”

Hasenhuttl only took charge of Saints on Thursday following Mark Hughes’ sacking, meaning he only had one training session before Saturday’s game against Neil Warnock’s Cardiff.

The former RB Leipzig manager will surely now realise the size of the task to keep this squad lacking in both quality and confidence up in the Premier League.

Not only is the team in total disarray, but Saints have games against Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea coming up in the next five matches.

“Confidence comes with good results and 1-0 here is not a good result,” Hasenhuttl said.

“We should prepare them. They have to believe in what we’re doing and I saw they did that for a very long time.

“It will be perfect if we get some results for the self-confidence. We didn’t here, but we have to keep working and they will come.

“I was not disappointed with what my team showed me, but that’s the basics. The rest will come in the next weeks.”