Everton boss Brian Sorensen believes his side have the opportunity to get a big result when they take on Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
The postponement of Everton's last fixture against Tottenham and the subsequent international break means it's been almost three weeks since the Blues were last in Women's Super League action against Manchester United. The Toffees slipped to seventh in the table following their 3-0 defeat to Marc Skinner's side, and they'll be looking to bounce back when they welcome Manchester City to Walton Hall Park this weekend.
City, who currently sit fourth in the table, have won all 12 of their previous Barclays WSL meetings against Everton; the best 100% record one team has against another in the competition's history. While Gareth Taylor will be hoping to extend that record in Saturday's clash, Sorensen thinks his side can learn from the United defeat and go toe-to-toe with City in front of a sell-out home crowd.
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“I think we learned a lot against United especially," Sorensen said in his pre-match press conference. "Also Chelsea, of course, but Chelsea we were really happy with our overall performance so for us it’s about putting that performance on the board and sticking to the stuff we’ve been good at.
"I think in United we were lacking in terms of energy and being ruthless in some situations so we need to do that tomorrow if we want to win.”
Reflecting on the quality of the opposition, the Everton boss said: "They're a good team and a lot of new signings who look like they’re starting to come together. I still think we have a good opportunity to do something against them.
"Of course we have to perform on our highest level, that’s how it is. They’ve been doing good in some games where they’ve been really, really outstanding but I think also there’s been some games where you can still see its a new group that’s coming together so let’s see how they step up tomorrow.
"But for our side I think we feel prepared for them and they’re probably one of the teams that because they’re so structured in what they want to do, they’re easier to prepare against. They're just doing really good.”
The international break has deprived the Everton boss of many of his key players for the last two weeks, however the Dane believes his side are well-equipped for the challenge of Saturday's game.
“There’s been a few players with their national teams," he said. "I think we’ve only had three or four players not going to the national team so we’ve been having some new training subs so we could have a decent amount at training but it’s been good.
"They’ve been working hard. It is a long time since we’ve played but I think we prepared really well for the Tottenham game and that learning is still there.
"The(international players) came back and we were all together yesterday, had a good training sessionn, training today so I think we’re as prepared as we can be with the short amount of time that we have.”
Manchester City loanee Jess Park was one of the Everton players who made the headlines on international duty; the 21-year-old netting her first England goal just 79 seconds after coming off the bench to make her senior debut. However, the forward will not be in contention against her parent club this weekend, with defender Katrine Veje also missing out as she recovers from a knock sustained in the Blues' last league fixture.
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