Eckert praises club-wide effort in QPR thrashing
Tonda Eckert hailed a club effort, on and off the pitch, after Southampton put five past QPR in a statement performance at St Mary’s.
Finn Azaz put Saints into an early lead inside the opening 10 minutes and Eckert’s side never looked back.
Doubling the lead in first-half stoppage time through Kuryu Matsuki’s first Championship goal, the Japanese quickly added his second after the interval, before Leo Scienza and James Bree completed the scoring.
For the head coach, just as pleasing was the clean sheet, as well as the performance of the groundstaff, who were praised for the quality of the playing surface after a quick turnaround following Saturday’s draw with Charlton in what has been a month of sustained rainfall on the south coast.
“I think if you win 5-0 there are some moments to enjoy,” Eckert said. “Towards the end it was just important for me that we managed to keep a clean sheet, because for us it is also a step to grow, but I think it was a big night for us.
“I think generally we didn’t give too much away, we defended well on the set-pieces, which for us is a big thing, and I think we’ve made some good progress there over the last weeks, so overall I’m very happy with how the game has gone.
“Big, big compliments to the groundsmen, because it’s so important for the way that we play that we have a good surface, especially with the back-to-back games now.
“I think the pitch was excellent today, and the consequence is the first goal that we scored, because we needed to be sharp in possession, we needed to be sharp with the ball, but you can only do that on a good surface, so big compliments to the groundstaff today – that was the key for us coming into the game.”
Matsuki grabbed the headlines with two of the goals on only his third Championship start, prompting Eckert to praise his humility.
“Kuryu has one thing that most of the players have – confidence in himself, and I think as a player you need to have that, to always back yourself – but he has another quality that for me stands out, and that is the humility and the way he works every single day,” he added.
“I’m very big on that, for me it’s so important to always be humble, also in the moments when you might have less minutes, and a game like today is when it pays off.
“He has been outstanding from the very first day in the way he approaches every single day, and I think the quality you could see on the pitch.”
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