MIDFIELDER Flynn Downes covers more ground than most and insists he would "die out on the pitch" - but he wants to smarten up his movement.

Downes, 25, lost his title as the Premier League's furthest runner due to missing a match for the first time this season when Saints lost 2-0 at Wolves.

Downes - last season's Daily Echo Player of the Year - covers around 11.65km a game on average as he aims to impact the whole pitch from the midfield.

He has been declared fit to face Liverpool and backs his teammates to turn up their performance levels when they host the league's leaders.

Manager Russell Martin insisted Saints missed the former West Ham man's "athleticism" at Molineux and he will return straight to the starting lineup.

"I was struggling a bit on the Friday before the Wolves game. I had a shot and felt something in my knee, it sort of twinged a little bit," said Downes.

Flynn Downes withdrew from the Wolves game during the warm-upsFlynn Downes withdrew from the Wolves game during the warm-ups (Image: Matt Watson / Southampton FC)

"We'd done everything we could and kind of knew that it was a big ask anyway but we thought we were going to give it a go.

"In the warm-up, I knew straight away I wasn't going to be able to give everything out there so we just decided to come back, take it easy and rest up for Liverpool."

Downes continued: "I'll give everything for the team. I'll die out on that pitch, you know what I mean? As cliché as it is.

"As much as I love the running stat, I feel like I need to adjust my game a little bit because every game I'm just leaving everything out there.

"Then for the whole week, I'm shattered. Don't get me wrong, it's a great stat to have but I think it would be good for my game wherever I play.

"I feel like I should sometimes take a step back and see the game before I start sprinting about. That's something I want to bring to my game."

Saints picked up their first win of the Premier League season before the defeat to Wolves, scraping past Merseyside outfit Everton 1-0 at St Mary's.

The result, which only came after a VAR check on a Beto equaliser was eventually cleared in added time, lifted some of the pressure on boss Martin.

"I think there's a few games that we've played already where we've thought, we have to win it. I think the Ipswich game was one of them," said Downes.

"We conceded last second. Leicester was another and we let that one slip as well. So then it came to the Everton one and we were like... we have to win.

"It's so early on in the season, you really don't have to win. But it's that mentality, you want the points on the board and it sort of took the pressure off a little bit.

"I thought we deserved a tiny bit of luck. In the seven games before that, we didn't get one bit of luck. Deflections going in top corners, offsides, we got nothing."

But the defeat to Wolves has dragged Saints back to the bottom of the table ahead of a difficult fixture run with three top-six sides in succession.

After Liverpool, Saints visit Fabian Hurzeler's Brighton on Friday, November 29, before bringing Enzo Maresca's Chelsea back home on Wednesday, December 4.

"I think we just have to take each game as it comes. We've played against Man City and Arsenal and done really well," insisted Downes. 

"We have been in the game for the whole 90 minutes. So I think if we play how we have been playing against them kinds of teams, I can see us getting points.

"I don't know what it is. I wonder if when we play with a bit of fear that a team can hurt us, we seem to play a lot better. We seem to be a lot more solid.

"I don't know why that is, but it's kind of the same last year, even when we played Leeds. We'd go like, we'd play, for example, Rotherham, maybe not play as well.

"When we knew it was going to be really tough we'd step up. It's really weird, I can't put my finger on why, but that's just the case with us at the minute.".