BOSS Adam Lallana claimed his squad “weren’t clinical enough” against Juventus Next Gen as his Saints under-21’s side drew 1-1 with the Italian giants on Tuesday night.
The former south coast midfielder was left frustrated as his side failed to add to a first-half lead scored by Princewill Ehbhatiomhan in their Premier League International Cup opener.
Davide Marchisio punished Saints in the second half with a stunning equaliser in the 68th minute, and forced the hosts to settle for a point.
After the match, the 38-year-old head coach rued the lack of clinical edge his squad showed in a physical contest.
“If there’s one thing we can take from the Italians, it’s that we have to be streetwise,” Lallana told Solent Sports News. “Perhaps we’re a bit tarnished from playing too soft down here.
“I don’t want my teams to represent that. We made the boys aware of the type of game we had coming and I don’t think we were naive tonight.
“It’s development football, so we have young players that are always learning. On the whole, I’m pleased with a lot of things tonight, but the result is frustrating.
“These situations happen at first-team level, it’s certainly happened to me a number of times. It’s just part and parcel of this level of the game.
“We just weren’t ruthless in front of goal. In the last few games, we’ve been extremely effective, scoring five or six goals. We could have had even more tonight. That’s football for you.”
Having taken the lead inside 10 minutes, the former Liverpool man demanded more of his charges as the first half played out.
Lallana was also unhappy at several individual decisions from his outfit throughout the evening, and stressed the importance of delivering his message to the team effectively.
“At half-time, I knew that being one up was great, but it should have been so much more, and Juventus weren’t going to be ineffective if given the chance.
“When that happens, you just need to stay calm, not raise your voice and have a chat with someone you need more out of.
“We’ll analyse what we’ve seen tonight, go over it and be better for the lessons the match has shown us.”
