Friday 1 December 2017 13:58, UK
Southampton can take a number of positives despite losing 2-1 to Premier League leaders Manchester City on Wednesday night, according to manager Mauricio Pellegrino.
The Saints had appeared to be on course for a well-deserved point at the Etihad until Raheem Sterling's stunning 96th-minute winner broke their hearts.
However, the Argentine thinks his players can take a lot going forward from the way they frustrated the runaway league leaders.
"It is difficult to digest when you play 99.9 per cent of the game more or less in the way we planned before," said Pellegrino. "But they have a lot of quality, they do not need too much to score.
"They scored an amazing goal and we have to congratulate the opponent. And we have to be proud in the way we competed against a really, really good side, and maybe at this moment one of the best teams in the world.
"But at the same time we have to use this game as were really competitive and thinking about the future we can play against stronger teams, and we can be really, really difficult for them."
The visitors made life uncomfortable throughout for City with their set plays and were unfortunate not to be ahead at the break after Wesley Hoedt's header hit the bar, a tactic Pellegrino said they had been working on in the build-up to the match.
"We knew that maybe with set plays we could have our chance, we were really close to scoring," he said. "But in football, it is about efficiency and in the end, we do not have anything. But we can be proud with how we played.
"We wanted to close the passes into the corridor, they are really clever to play in this corridor against the back four. And for this reason we decided to play with one defender more because anyway you will defend deep. And more or less we were 99.9 per cent right and we were a little bit unlucky."
Overall, though, Pellegrino thought Southampton could take a lot from the contest as they head into Sunday's showdown with south coast rivals Bournemouth.
"Especially the mentality of my team," he said. "We are really disappointed with the result, I'm really proud how we played. And I repeat, playing in this way with this spirit, maybe we will improve."
