Dušan Tadić, who was instrumental in helping Southampton try and fight-back in the second-half against Manchester City on Saturday afternoon, has admitted his teammates need to cut out crucial mistakes if they are to improve.
The Serbian creative midfielder, who was introduced at the start of the second-half, did his best to help get Ronald Koeman's men back into the game.
Costly mistakes punished by ruthless Citizens
Maya Yoshida dithered on the ball in possession - allowing Raheem Sterling to dispossess him, drive forward on the wing, and assist Kevin de Bruyne to open the scoring within ten minutes.
And as quoted by the Southampton Echo, Tadić admitted even the smallest of mistakes can be punished by the best of teams.
Tadić admits Saints need to be more focused
"When you make some small mistakes against this kind of teams it's really hard and they will punish you." He continued, saying that we [as a team] need to "learn a lot of things" from their 3-1 defeat at the Ethiad.
"You need to be more concentrated and focus - that's it."
Caballero alert to thwart counter-attacking impetus
Willy Caballero made a string of fine saves to deny Tadic, Sadio Mané and Shane Long in the second-half, as the visitors began to build momentum on the counter-attack and troubled City defensively especially after Long halved the deficit.
Reflecting on his missed opportunity to equalise, Tadic said he wanted to chip Caballero, but the experienced Argentine made a good save to thwart his effort on-goal.
Shortly after that save from close-range, Aleksandar Kolarov rounded off a well-worked team move to volley into the bottom corner, making it 3-1 and virtually sealing all three points for the hosts.
With that being said though, Tadic was pleased with the side's second-half display. "We wanted to press them, wanted to play more football, then it was easier for us and that was the big difference."
Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool side travel to St.Mary's on Wednesday evening with a place in the Capital One Cup semi-finals up for grabs, so you'd hope the Saints avoid any costly mistakes that could be capitalized upon in that fixture.