Southampton centre-back Maya Yoshida has called for his side to improve quickly following their 3-0 home defeat to Everton on Saturday.

The Saints were beaten comfortably in their first home match in the league this campaign and their performance was a far cry from the form that saw them concede only 13 home goals in the top flight last season.

The Japanese defender conceded that they deserved to lose the match against the Toffees and their form was particularly disappointing considering they won 11 of their 19 league games at St Mary’s during the 2014-15 campaign.

He said: “They deserved to win the game. Nobody expected it to go like this because it was our opening home game. I think we are not like the team we were here. We didn’t dominate the opponent. We had more possession but in the first half we didn’t show who we are.”

The 26-year-old believes the team must improve in all aspects of their game if they want to repeat last season’s heroics and he is determined to put in a much better showing in their next home match against Midtjylland in the first leg of their Europa League qualifying tie on Thursday.

He continued: “We have a game in the Europa League on Thursday so it’s a very important wake-up alarm for us. We have to concentrate to keep a clean sheet.

“We need to be more compact, more solid physically and tactically we need to be more intelligent. We need to improve a lot of things.”

The Saints are 26.00 to win Europe’s secondary cub competition this season in what is their first campaign on the continent since 2003.