Romeu wants defensive solidity from Saints

Southampton’s Oriol Romeu says getting back to their solid defensive foundations will be the key as the second half of the season progresses.

The Saints shut out Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool for the second time this season in midweek, despite them being the highest scorers in the EFL Cup going into the first leg at the St Mary’s.

Southampton currently sit 13th in the Premier League table and Romeu believes that their 1-0 win over the Reds came at the right time, ahead of a mid-table clash away at Burnley.

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Romeu said: “We needed to win battles but if they don’t feel comfortable they won’t have that confidence playing.

“Having the chance to win those duels, they felt a little bit more uncomfortable and they didn’t play as well as they could so it was good to win those and those second balls.

“The clean sheet was very important. We need to have more clean sheets because recently we have conceded too many goals.”

Southampton had not managed to keep a clean sheet in five games prior to their EFL Cup semi-final win against Liverpool.

He added: “Sometimes we score one goal and after five or ten minutes we were not playing as good as we were.

“We scored and we kept playing the same in the whole game and I think we’ve learnt from the last games.”