Southampton defender Jan Bednarek lamented his side's lack of conviction in attack.
Bednarek was speaking after the Saints were battered 4-1 by Manchester City at the weekend.
Despite the setback and his team's poor defensive showing, Bednarek felt that with more of a clinical front line, they could have gotten something from the game.
Yes, it's difficult for us," Bednarek told the Daily Echo regarding relegation.
We have a good game, we have moments when we play very well but I think we're just not consistent enough.
For the first 45 minutes we were very good but I think that's not enough against top teams in the world. 45 minutes is not enough, 44 minutes is not enough. So this is what we have to learn as a team.
We need to find a way to play like that for 90 minutes and to do that we need to keep the ball more, we have to have more possession. Because I feel like against those teams, we need to get them tired as well.
"Because when they lose the ball they're sharp enough and fresh enough to take it back and create chances. It's a big lesson for us and we need to learn. We need to learn, improve, and stay positive.
I think we had a few really good chances that we could turn into a goal but it wasn't enough because there was no conviction, we were not ruthless enough. And against top top teams, if you have one or two chances, you have to score a goal."