By OkayGoal
Everton head coach Scott Phelan said that his side lacked belief as they went down 2-0 to neighbours Liverpool in a Merseyside derby at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Beata Olsson and Cornelia Kapocs netted the goals for the hosts as Everton’s proud derby record at Anfield came to an end.
When speaking to the media after the match, Everton boss Phelan shared his thoughts on where his side fell short over the 90 minutes.
“Probably conceding an early goal didn’t help, which is disappointing,” Phelan said. “You know set-pieces are a threat in this Liverpool team and they showed up. [Scoring] so early maybe had an impact on our belief because I think in the first half, a little bit of belief [was missing] which was unexpected. We’d obviously come off the back of some decent form, so to not show that belief was the biggest disappointment in the first half.
“I thought we showed a response for 20 minutes or so in the second half and the game became a little bit more even and then the last part was a little bit messy; we were chasing the game and spaces appeared. They had a few chances that maybe they could have took a little bit earlier.
“I thought we lacked belief as a main part, which was disappointing.”
Going on to comment on the first half performance further, Phelan highlighted simple mistakes made by his side after conceding the early goal.
He said “It’s hard when you concede the early goal because all of a sudden, the plan that you did have needs to be adapted quite quickly. The players need to find that belief and put it to the side as quickly as they can. I don’t think we did that, we keep failing with simple decisions and it’s hard for any patterns to appear. I thought that was the case too often; unnecessary giveaways of the ball, too easy to turn over the ball. That didn’t allow any of our play to appear. It was the lack of belief, that was the main thing that I took from the first half.”
Everton have failed to score a goal in the opening weeks of the new season; their two goals have come from opposition players. Phelan believes that there is no cause for concern.
He said “It’s definitely not the end [of the world] and panic stations. We’re working with the players, we’ve got good players in all areas of the pitch. We’re convinced that they will contribute more. We’ve just got to wait for the moment to appear and hopefully, it’s sooner rather than later.”
Everton are next in action on Sunday when they face Birmingham City at Goodison Park.
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