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Former Southampton star Jo Tessem has insisted that Saints need to stop conceding so many goals as he believes they do not have the quality of someone like Danny Ings to bail them out.
Saints are back in the Premier League this season, but are already struggling and look in line for a relegation battle.
Russel Martin’s side are currently sitting at the bottom in the league table and scraped past Stoke City on Tuesday night in an EFL Cup clash.
Tessem admitted that Martin needs to do something about the number of goals they are conceding as they have already let in 19 goals in nine league games.
He stressed that Ings, who plays for West Ham now, used to bail Saints out with his ability but he feels as they do not have that quality, they need to defend better.
“One task Russell Martin has to sort out is the amount of goals that go in”, Tessem said on BBC Radio Solent about his former side.
“And that has been the problem for a few years, we talked about it for many many years.
“We do concede too many goals and that is part of the football game.
“It is one thing scoring a lot of goals, but we have not got anyone at the moment that bails us out of the trouble.
“Like Danny Ings did; he bailed us out by scoring goals when we were 1-0 down, so we do not have that at the moment.”
They will host Everton at St. Mary’s this Saturday and will look to keep a clean sheet to give themselves a chance to win their first league match of the campaign.
