Juric: Important For the Players and Fans, Problems With Downes During the Week - Ipswich Town News
Southampton boss Ivan Juric felt his side’s 2-1 victory over the Blues was important for both the players and fans and revealed former Town midfielder Flynn Downes was left out of the squad after “some problems” in the week.
The rock-bottom Saints won only their second Premier League game all season and their first away from home, taking their points tally to nine, four taken from their games against Town.
"It is important for the players, for the fans and I think we deserve it. Before we did some really good games against Manchester [United] and West Ham, but we didn’t do the points,” he said.
"Today we suffered a little bit more but great character and quality in the final and we won the game.
"I told them tomorrow morning we have training and we have to believe that we are not so bad as it seems and try to win other games.
"We have to believe. We have to play every time like this and working hard during the week and then we’ll see.
"As you see today we are fighting. We don’t want to give up and we have character. We want to play like we did today.”
Juric said he would be celebrating his first league win as Saints manager with a glass of wine: "Of course red wine. I will start with red wine and then we will see.”
Regarding Downes’s absence from the 20-man squad, Juric said: "We had some problems with him during the week and he didn’t play.”
The Croat refused to elaborate further regarding the 26-year-old Town academy product, who signed permanently for the Saints in the summer following a loan last season with the Blues also having shown interest.
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