Adams: Break come at the right time
Ché Adams feels the mid-season break has come at a good time for Southampton, following the 3-1 defeat at Liverpool in Nathan Jones’s first game in charge.
All four goals came in the first half at Anfield, with Adams’s equaliser cancelling out Roberto Firmino’s opener, before Darwin Núñez struck twice before the break.
Despite an encouraging second half which saw Alisson the busier of the two goalkeepers, the visitors were forced to leave Merseyside empty-handed.
Now facing a five-week pause to allow for the World Cup, Adams is looking forward to implanting the new manager’s ideas, with Jones only taking one training session since being announced on Thursday.
“We’ve got to take the positives from today,” Saints’ top scorer said. “We’ve got a new manager and new ideas and I think the break has come at the right time for everyone to buy-in and push on for the second half of the season.
“The goals were too easy and like the manager said, we were too passive in our defence and it allowed them to break us down.
“When you come to Anfield you’ve got to be harder to play against and it’s got to be harder to score against us but as I said, we’ve just got to take the positives from today and look forward to the break.
“We came to Anfield and we created chances. It wasn’t to be today, but we’ve got to take the positives and enjoy the break, enjoy the new manager with his new ideas. We’ve all got to buy-in now and we’ll be fine.”
Asked what message Jones has passed on to the squad in the opening days of his tenure, Adams revealed the group are determined to make the most of the upcoming time on the training pitch.
“[The manager has been] clear and direct. Everyone is on the same page. Everyone knows what he wants from us and that’s the main thing.
We’ve got time now to train together and recover as well, something everyone has needed both mentally and physically, so we’re all looking forward to it.
“We’ve got to have a real buy-in from everyone now and everyone involved wants to play for Southampton so everyone has got it and everyone wants to learn and have fresh ideas so we are all looking forward to that.”
