”Pathetic” - Russell Martin takes aim at Southampton players after Leicester City hammering | OneFootball

Russell Martin let off a scathing review of his Southampton players' performances against Leicester City on Tuesday night.

Southampton's chances of finishing in one of the top two spots in the Championship were looking slim before their trip to the King Power Stadium, but the fact that they still had to play Leicester and Leeds United in their final three games of the season gave some hope that they could claw back points on those above them.

The defeat on Saturday against Cardiff City, which saw them control most of the game but lose 2-1, courtesy of a late goal from 19-year-old Cian Ashford, started to put the final nail into the Saints' automatic promotion hopes, but the 5-0 loss to the Foxes was the heavy hammer that sealed that coffin shut.

After 60 minutes, Leicester only led by one goal, but, from Wilfried Ndidi's goal in the 62nd minute onwards, it was a total collapse by Martin's men.

They conceded goals three, four and five in the space of six minutes, and it was an embarrassing affair for Southampton's boss to watch from the sidelines.

Russell Martin's honest assessment of Southampton's performance vs Leicester

After the game, the Scotsman laid into the players, describing their performance in the second half as: "pathetic."

He said, to Sky Sports after the crushing defeat: "We can't lose 5-0. We were so in the game at 1-0, and we started the second half so well, but our moments didn't come to enough, and then we defended pathetically after we went two goals down."

Martin continued: "I thought it was a high-level game in the first half. It was very tactical. Both teams pressed well, both teams struggled to get in a real flow with the ball, because it's two aggressive teams without it.

"I loved the energy that we started with in the second half. We caused some real problems, but then the second goal just takes the sting out of it.

"But, like I said, you need to regroup at that point, and we didn't. What happened after that, my feeling is that we went into self-preservation mode, individually. It's the worst thing that you can do in football - try and protect yourself and feel like you're doing just enough in your bit, rather than help your teammate.

"I don't like that trait in my team one bit, and that really hurts."

Southampton's problems against good teams has caused their season to become unstuck

Prior to the battering that Southampton were on the end of last night, they had only won four of their 10 games against sides in the top seven in the Championship, as well as losing as many times, and they'd only won nine of their 20 fixtures against teams in the top half of the table.

If you want to challenge for automatic promotion, that simply isn't good enough.

Yes, you can look at results like Ipswich Town (A) and say there's a lot of luck that went the way of the opposition. But that record, which has now worsened to four wins and five losses against the top seven teams, and nine wins in 21 against top-half teams, shows a lack of consistency against the better teams that the Saints have struggled with all season.

Southampton have failed to do that on a majority of occasions this season.