Ronald Koeman gave a brutally honest assessment of his team after their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City, admitting they were “not good enough.”

Saints started hesitantly but recovered to compete well with City in the first half but after Morgan Schneiderlin was withdrawn because of injury at the break things started to go wrong.

Koeman’s side certainly didn’t help themselves as errors were harshly punished by City, and the Saints manager was not about to hide away from what he saw as the reality of the situation on the day.

“If I look to my team it may be two or three players reach the level what they can show,” said Koeman.

“In my opinion Toby Alderweireld played fantastic and in the first half we had a good organisation but in the attacking way it’s different to create that kind of chance what we can do against a team or defenders like Man City and it was not good enough and we were punished for that.

“We knew that before the game and they showed us and we know that. It’s football, and after the season we will know what we are but this was not good enough.”

He added: “I think the start of the second half was better than our start in the first half but you know if you make mistakes you will be punished for that.

“Even when it was 11 against ten we made mistakes and they scored two goals more and that’s not good.

“We knew we have to be good to have a good result but I think in our ball position in the beginning of the game was not good. We were defending well, had a good organisation and they didn’t create a lot of opportunities.

“I thought in the second half little by little we will do a little more pressing to win the game - it was 1-0 down and it was not good enough. That is what I have to say.”

There is little doubt this game was new territory for Saints.

They are used to playing sides like City as the firm underdogs, but on this occasion they were also under the microscope.

Koeman is confident though that was not the deciding factor.

He said: “Maybe the pressure is a little bit more higher than in the start of the season but we put the pressure to ourselves to show qualities in our way of playing and we realise it’s more difficult against these teams like City, but not more pressure because we know exactly that we are, a growing up team, and we have to show and it’s difficult to beat these kind of teams.”