(Reuters) - Southampton have only kicked into gear in the second half of their two Premier League matches this season and the club must show more intent from the first whistle, defender Oriol Romeu has said.
Southampton were held to a goalless draw by Burnley in their season opener but were beaten 2-1 by Everton last weekend when they were two down with half an hour played but improved after the break and scored through Danny Ings.
"We need to start games better because last week luckily was 0-0 but this week we conceded a couple of goals," Romeu told the Southern Daily Echo ahead of Saturday's league match against Leicester City.
"We cannot have these differences between parts of the game because that is killing us."
Southampton started last season poorly with three wins from 12 games and Romeu said the club had to avoid getting into a similar situation in the new campaign.
"We do come out at teams feeling confident that we can get something out of every game," he said. "Sometimes it's how we react if something negative happens, how we get over this and that's very important throughout the whole season."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)