Southampton defender Ryan Bertrand has called on the players to stand up and be counted ahead of a huge visit to Newcastle United this weekend.
Saints head to St James’s Park on Saturday on the back of a 0-0 home draw with Stoke City, as they take on a Magpies team that is only one point above them in the table.
After another stalemate at the weekend, Bertrand admitted that draws – Saints have had a league-high 13 of them this season – are not enough, and that they need to find victories quickly.
“You definitely need all the experience you can get and that’s what you need to draw on,” Bertrand told the Daily Echo after Saturday’s game with Stoke.
“Everyone needs to stand up, and you can't do anything else but look forward because the table is still very tight.”
ryan bertrand
we need to get our wins. draws are just not good enough for us at the moment.
southampton defender
The left-back, who again captained the side at the weekend, added: “There are a lot of positives to take from how tight it is, so we just need to get the goals in and turn these goals into wins and it's a completely different story.
“We need to get our wins, especially playing the teams close to us. Draws are just not good enough for us at the moment.”
Bertrand explained that Saints’ second-half performance against Stoke, when they put their opponents under some significant pressure, is what they need to take forward, and not that of the first half, when they struggled to create opportunities.
“We just applied more energy and just went up a notch in our intensity and we had them on the ropes, but we didn't manage to score,” he said.
“It was a good way to finish. If you're going to draw it is better to finish as the team in the ascendancy so we can take positive from that and move on.”
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