Mauricio Pellegrino wants his team to prove they have the fight to turn around their poor form following the 3-0 loss at Liverpool.

The Saints boss admitted his side struggled to react as he would want after they fell 2-0 behind in the first half at Anfield, as they were comfortably beaten with barely a whimper.

It is clearly not want Saints require as they begin to look over their shoulder.

“Against this team when you are losing 2-0 away it is difficult to come back,” he said.

“Obviously we have to react in a different way because in football everything can happen.

“We try everything and the preparation was really good before the game and we have to say Liverpool was better than us today.”

The defeat was a bad way to start a run of games in which Saints play all of the top six before the turn of the year, and piled extra pressure on the next match at home to Everton.

When asked if he was content with the attitude of his players at Anfield he replied: “At the beginning yes, but I think the second goal we were really disappointed after conceding the second one and we felt that we never could do something more to try to be in the game.”

Pellegrino was asked whether that was worrying and continued: “For sure because in the second half we try at the beginning, we have the Sofiane chance and maybe Ryan but again in the third goal we were finished with our expectation.”