'Players did let boss Mark down in Saints setback...'

WELL, we went from the best to the worst.

- By Mike Pejic

Having praised Stoke's performance here against Birmingham then they had better expect some stick for what happened against Southampton.Lessons should have been learned from the Middlesbrough game and how we dealt with their building from the back.

The first-half performance that evening was excellent as we set off pressing in the attacking third. Two wide players and the centre-forward withdrew to then go and press on the edge of the box, the centre midfield can then back them up with cover and support and the back four can push up to near the halfway line. You get compactness and balance. It was so evident what we were doing right and it was excellent.

Then in the second half you look at how we ended up losing. There was a lack of all those principles being put into place in every third of the pitch.

We knew Southampton were going to have a similar approach. The players didn't compete and they let the manager down. At the same time, he had moved players around and I'm not a fan of making so many changes, whether that's switching personnel or asking them to do different roles. A young goalkeeper doesn't need that in front of him. He needs a settled defence and a reliable holding midfielder.

The front three didn't apply the first principle of withdrawing and then pressing. Lamine Cisse and Sorba Thomas sat off and spread wide when they needed to show the new lad Milan Smit what was expected. They should have set the tempo so he could then block off one of the centre-halves and make a directional play in the press.