A gruelling international break is the reason Southampton squandered a two goal lead in the 2-2 draw with Leicester City, according to club captain Jose Fonte.
The central defender, who headed in Saints’ opening goal against the Foxes, believes having too many squad members playing for their country caused tiredness, which resulted in the fading performance of the second half at St. Mary’s.
Ronald Koeman’s side were 2-0 up when Virgin van Dijk added to Fonte’s opener, but the home side came out jaded in the second half and a double from Jamie Vardy made sure Leicester got a share of the points.
Fonte said: “We controlled the game in the first half but we were against a team that never gives up. We knew about that, before the game we were talking about it.”
“We had a lot of people away on international duty. They came back tired. You could see we were tired. Leicester don’t have as many players [as us] in the national teams and it showed.”
Fonte recently signed a new contract at St. Mary’s, extending his loyal stay at the club for another three seasons. He has continued with the club when others have left, despite some alluring offers from Cardiff City and Liverpool. That loyalty was rewarded when former manager Mauricio Pochettino handed him the captain’s armband, and he has grown to be a leader in the dressing room.
This was proved in the aftermath of Dani Osvaldo’s training ground bust-up with Fonte, when the Saints players made it very clear that Osvaldo would not be welcome in the team and the Italian never played for Southampton again.
Fonte has also become a fan favourite at the club, evident by the reaction to the opening goal against Leicester. Although the result was disappointing, Fonte believes they could have avoided the comeback.
“In the second half, we weren’t fresh. We dropped our intensity. We stopped pressing them. We allowed them to have the ball too much. We didn’t hold the ball up front. That invites pressure. It looked like a question of time when they were going to score, because it was ball after ball after ball, too much defending.”
