Ronald Koeman admitted Saints have been given a wake-up call following their 3-0 defeat against Everton.

The Saints boss said he was not angry with his team after but certainly appeared disappointed to see them concede via a break from their attacking corner for the second week in a row.

That goal put Saints on the back foot against Everton and things didn’t get much better as they ended up following up last week’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle with a heavy defeat at St Mary’s.

Koeman said: “The set-pieces we gave a lot of attention at set-pieces.

“Normally defensively we are defending very good.

“I think Southampton was last year the best team in the Premier League. I think there was no direct goal about corner kicks against us.

“But you have to know if we have a corner kick we need a good organisation, we need reaction.

“Then we can’t let them score the second goal because that’s not good.”

There were plenty of errors from Saints again, at both ends of the pitch.

When asked what went wrong against the Toffees, Koeman replied: “Too much, too much in the first half.

“I think we gave them too much space to play, too much space between the lines, and you know if you give Everton that space to play football between the lines then you get difficulties.

“Maybe the best example to tell about what happened in the first half was two times a corner kick and one goal and one chance.

“You can’t do that kind of mistakes on this level.

“Already received the goal the 2-1 against Newcastle about an offensive corner kick and today the second goal and then you know it’s very difficult to come back in the game.”

Saints now move on to prepare for the Europa League tie against FC Midtjylland on Thursday.

The Danish champions travel to St Mary’s for the first leg before Saints go looking for a first Premier League win of the campaign at Watford.

Daily Echo:

They will certainly have to produce an improved performance, and Koeman has acknowledged that.

“Maybe we need to bring more attention in a better reaction when this happens,” said Koeman, referring to those counter attacking goals conceded from set-pieces.

“Normally if the opponent let one player in front we like to have one in his back and one in front of the player.

“That’s small details but very important ones and we have to improve because you can lose and you can win games about set pieces.

“If you don’t score in offensive set pieces that we don’t receive at least the goal behind. We have to talk about that.”