Southampton boss Ronald Koeman frustrated by Aston Villa draw ahead of Man City clash

SOUTHAMPTON boss Ronald Koeman bemoaned a mixture of injuries, lack of creative spark and defensive errors for his side's failure to put a struggling Aston Villa to the sword.

22:05, Mon, Nov 24, 2014

Ronald Koeman ACTION IMAGES

Ronald Koeman thinks his players were not fresh for tonight's game

Nathaniel Clyne scored a late equalizer to rescue a point for the Dutch coach after seeing Gabby Agbonlahor capitalise on Fraser Forster's error.

The point lifted Villa to 16th while Southampton slipped six points behind leader Chelsea, but still two points ahead of Manchester City

"I didn't come for one point tonight before we came. I thought we had a team good enough to win tonight but after conceding it was very difficult.

"We didn't create as many chances as we should have and we missed some fitness and some quality, it was a misunderstanding defensively that made it more difficult for us.

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I didn't come for one point tonight before we came
Ronald Koeman

"In the last few weeks and from the beginning of the season we have always played with three midfielders but with Steven Davis injured we chose for Shane long to go behind Graziano Pelle and it looked like we had too many people in the middle of the park and missed somebody out wide.

"It was completely a misunderstanding defensively. I'm not used to that. But that's football, we are human beings but after that it was more difficult.

"Every game is a battle. Maybe in the position Aston Villa were with some key players injured maybe they are dangerous and we didn't reach our level which we can reach and we must reach that against Man City for Sunday."