New saint’s under 21s head coach Adam Asghar insists he has “learned a lot” about his players after a seven goal thriller against Lyon at Snows Stadium.
Saints came from three goals down to level with the travelling French outfit before Djibrail Dib scored an acrobatic kick in the last minute for Lyon to win 4-3.
Princewill Ehibhatiomahn’s third goal of the season preceded a brace from Tyler Dibling to get Saints back on level terms in Totton.
It was a return to the Premier League International Cup that will see Saints also take on Celtic, Valencia and Dinamo Zagreb this year.
Asghar – who joined the club from Sunderland and started in his role on Monday – assessed the performance with the Daily Echo after the match.
“The main aim for me tonight was to take everything in and observe the boys. The best way to learn about these individuals is on the pitch,” he said.
“In the next few weeks, I have to build some relationships and establish some expectations I have for them and that they have for me.
“It was good to see them in a testing environment against top European opposition, under the floodlights and with a decent crowd.
“I have learned a lot and it’s mostly positive, obviously some negatives which we have discussed and are disappointing, but mostly positive.”
Lyon presented a unique challenge to a talented age group in the Saints academy, offering a different playstyle to typical teams in Premier League 2.
Although they defended in a block, they were aggressive and physical out of possession while throwing bodies and ball forward directly in attack.
The Lyon team compete week-in, week-out in a men’s league in France (National 3) in
Asghar insisted: “It was definitely something we discussed with the staff beforehand, I have watched the games from afar but we knew the tactics would be different.
“European teams and European games often are. Their plan was to sit off us and play in a block whereas most teams in England will press us high.
“We were safe with the ball but we needed to be a little bit quicker to force the ball in behind and stretch spaces to exploit.
