Jesper Lindstrøm echoed the thoughts of many a fan when asked to assess Everton’s performance at St Mary’s on Saturday that resulted in a fifth Premier League defeat in 10 games.
The Dane’s appearance against Southampton was only his third League start since arriving on loan from Napoli over the summer and he was unable to affect the match in the way that he had hoped as the Blues fell to what was Russell Martin’s side’s first win since their promotion back to the top flight from the Championship.
Adam Armstrong struck a late winner just moments after Beto had rattled the crossbar at the other end with a close-range header and the Portuguese strike had a goal wiped out by an incredibly tight offside call.
The defeat was a hugely disappointing way for Everton to lose their unbeaten record of five games and when asked how he felt in the wake of the 1-0 reverse, Lindstrøm didn’t temper his words in calling out both himself and Sean Dyche’s team as a collective.
“Shit!” he said. “Sorry – We want to win games, we want to win points, we want to win games like this. It’s not good enough. Overall we have to demand more of each other. We have to train hard, we have to keep going.
“The first half especially was not good enough, was not what we expected. We are a much better team than we showed.
“The second half was better, we were running more, fighting more, creating chances. I think we deserved at least a point with all the chances but, on the other hand, I don’t think we deserved it because I know we can play much better than we did.
“In the first half, we were too far from each other. From my perspective, my touches were not great. It was better in the second half. We created good chances, receiving the ball high, but didn’t have the last part, the shot. I am fuming.”
Meanwhile, Dyche, who will take his injury-affected side back out on the road this coming weekend for a clash with fellow strugglers West Ham at the London Stadium looking for a better performance and result, bemoaned referee Andy Madley’s decision not to show Jan Bednarek a red card for his cynical foul on Beto.
“Our shape was good, our play was good, we made enough chances away from home to win the game,” the manager said. “The big calls didn’t go for us either, particularly the one where Beto goes straight through. How that’s not a sending-off, I don’t know. He’s inside the “V” as the referees work on.
“I know their defender. I don’t think he’s that quick to get around him from there but we don’t get those big decisions often.
“It’s not only a sloppy goal, we should have scored at the other end. They get a breakaway, sometimes that happens from a misshapen team. We had plenty of desire to get back and they got that out of nothing at that stage of the game.”