WESLEY Hoedt insists he is his own biggest critic.

The Saints defender has been criticised more than most during the club’s first ten games of the season.

But he says he is well aware of the areas in which he needs to improve.

“I’m really hard on myself so no-one has to worry about that,” he said. “I’m really self-critical. I can be critical to others as well.

“That’s one of the things I need to improve but that’s because I demand a lot of myself so I demand it from others.

“You need to be critical. When the team is conceding goals there are going to be questions asked about the players, about the defenders. That is normal. Everyone has a right to do so.

“We’ve conceded too easily and that’s been a problem for a long while, we need to be honest about that,” he said.

Hoedt is one of six ever-presents for Saints in the Premier League this season, alongside Ryan Bertrand, Cedric Soares, Mario Lemina, Alex McCarthy and Nathan Redmond.

“Sometimes you’re unlucky,” said the 24 year-old, who scored an own goal in the 3-0 defeat at Anfield last month. “You see the Liverpool goal, everyone can make criticisms about that.

“But at the last moment the ball gets changed from its movement. You can’t do anything about it. And yet the defender is going to be blamed. That’s just life for a defender.”

Hoedt has made 36 appearances overall for Saints since his £15m move from Lazio 14 months ago. He admits it has taken some getting used to.

“It’s a different league, there are different pressures,” he said.

“It’s quite different, to be honest. In Italy they spend days on defending instead of moments of days.

“That’s just the difference in culture. In Italy we did two or three extra training sessions a week only for the defensive unit.

"But we work a lot here as well. Overall I think I’ve become a better player, for sure. You need to be smart, you need to understand situations better and in most situations I do. But there’s always room for improvement.”