LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers knew it was going to be a “dangerous” game against Saints.

The Foxes beat Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side 9-0 in the reverse fixture but were outclassed in the rematch on Saturday.

And Rodgers admitted his team didn’t perform as well as he has become accustomed to overseeing.

He said: “Both parts of our game weren’t quite to the level we’ve been at.

“Firstly, our defending, we weren’t aggressive enough.

“Southampton, when they win, get forward early and you have to stop that, and we didn’t do that well enough.

“We’re normally very tight and compact and we lacked that energy and intensity in our defending and that spills over.

“Apart from one pass for the goal and late on we didn’t have too many clear moments in the game. But credit to Southampton. I thought it would be a dangerous game and it proved to be that.”

The defeat leaves Leicester 16 points off Liverpool in first place, although they are still comfortably in the Champions League positions.

VAR had to be called on numerous times throughout Saints’ win at the King Power, ruling out three Leicester goals, but Rodgers felt all the calls it made were the right ones.

“It was always going to be tough, there was no complacency, we just didn’t play well and well done Southampton,” he added.

“I thought VAR was correct on both.”