Southampton midfielder Oriol Romeu accepts Saints will have to create more chances for the likes of Danny Ings after they suffered an opening-day defeat at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Wilfried Zaha scored the only goal in south London after 13 minutes when he volleyed home a cross from Andros Townsend to hand the Eagles a 1-0 win.
It was a different story after the break, with Che Adams and Ings brilliantly denied by the Spanish stopper, but Southampton’s own Spaniard is aware they must do more for their strikers going forward.
Romeu told the official club website: “We would’ve deserved something if we had taken our chances, but we didn’t, so that’s something we have to get better at.
“We probably need to give the strikers more options, more chances to score those goals and by playing the whole game as we did in the second half.”
“At the end of last season it was very positive,” Romeu admitted.
“Pre-season has gone very well as well, but I think in the first half they felt good in what they were doing and we couldn’t move the ball quickly enough to create chances.
“We had to change things up and we did that at half-time – trying to put more balls in behind, playing more through the lines and trying to hurt them a little bit more and putting them more under pressure.
“I think we had some chances in the second half, but unfortunately we couldn’t take any.”
“He is a top player,” Dann said of Kouyate. “He can play midfield and showed what he is capable of in the back four. He’s been playing like that since the end of last season.
“It was a good defensive performance from the front all the way through. Everyone put a shift in and the goalkeeper made some saves at the important times.”
