Southampton should feel ashamed after early Europa League exit to Midtjylland, admits midfielder Dusan Tadic

Southampton lost 2-1 on aggregate in their Europa League play-off
Dusan Tadic admits Saints played too many long balls in Denmark
Boss Ronald Koeman will tell Victor Wanyama he cannot join Tottenham
Dutchman says his side must learn from the mistakes they have made

Published:
21:31 GMT, 28 August 2015

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Updated:
23:39 GMT, 28 August 2015

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Dusan Tadic has criticised Southampton’s desperate long ball tactics as they crashed out of the Europa League and told his team-mates they should be ashamed of not progressing.

The south coast club failed to qualify for the group stage losing their play-off with a whimper and by two goals to one on aggregate against what should have been far inferior opposition in Danish side FC Midtjylland.

Starting the second leg in Denmark trailing by an away goal, Southampton were calm and collected for all of 20 minutes before they conceded and then the direct balls from distance to target-man Graziano Pelle began.

Southampton defender Dusan Tadic, pictured in action against Midtjylland, is ashamed at his side’s defeat

Graziano Pelle, Steven Davis, Juanmi and Jose Fonte (L-R) look dejected after Thursday’s 1-0 defeat

‘We started playing too many long balls, this is not our football,’ Tadic said. ‘I understand that you can play too much direct sometimes. But I know this team. We like to play football on the ground. We need to show more and play better as a team. It’s not good.

‘I think Midtjylland are a team we should have beaten because we have much more quality than them in every way. Because of that we need to feel a little bit ashamed. I feel really ashamed that we didn’t go through.

‘We need to play football how we were playing at the beginning of last year. From that we can do something.’

Manager Ronald Koeman, after a glorious debut season, must show his steel now by wrestling what is turning into a catastrophic start to the campaign under control.

The Dutchman will sit down with Victor Wanyama to discuss the player’s future where he will make it clear, amid interest from Tottenham, he is going nowhere. Any attempts from Manchester United to sign Sadio Mane will also be resisted.

Losing those two would be disastrous following their Europa League exit and one point from three Premier League games. By the time they face Norwich on Sunday they could potentially be bottom of the table.

Morten Rasmussen (right) celebrates after scoring Midtjylland’s goal in their Europa League play-off

Midfielder Victor Wanyama, pictured in action against Watford, has attracted interest from Tottenham

He has warned supporters they will struggle to better last season’s highest ever Premier League finish, of seventh, and record points tally which deserved to get them in to the Europa League proper.

‘The expectations are different to last year, people expect more but we have to be realistic with what happened and what we lost in the last year,’ Koeman said.

‘In the first season we changed a lot and after some weeks you improve and develop the players but now we have been playing more.

Saints boss Ronald Koeman has reduced expectations after last season’s highest ever Premier League finish

‘Now we have time to improve and have good training sessions and we need that. That is one of the reasons for the mistakes from the last few days. We have to make less mistakes and learn from them.’

Although Koeman is bitterly disappointed at not progressing, he is relieved that he will be afforded more time in training to get his team playing the sort of football that won them matches at the Emirates Stadium and Old Trafford last year. Not long balls pumped up to Pelle.

He added: ‘We have new players and the start of the season is completely different, the transfer window is a big influence in the focus of the players and last year we played only three times, Sunday will be our eighth game in August.’