Everton Women's boss Brian Sorensen believes Sunday's defeat against Manchester United was a "wake up call" for his team.
Everton went into the contest having won three of their last four league matches; as many wins as they managed across their previous 19 games in the WSL. The Blues' bright start to the season saw them sitting fourth in the table before the action got underway at Walton Hall Park, however ex-Everton striker Nikita Parris quickly dealt her former club a blow; slotting home to put United a goal up inside 15 minutes.
While Everton managed to keep the visitors at bay for the remainder of the first half, the league leaders exhibited their quality after the interval, with Leah Galton and Hayley Ladd netting in quick succession to secure United the three points.
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Speaking after the game, Sorensen told the ECHO: “It's a good learning curve. We know that we need to do better so it's hopefully a good wake up call that, if we want to compete with a side like United, we have to put in more.
"I think we matched them in lots of parts of the game, it's just we’re not taking the right decisions when we can create chances. They do that better."
In a bid to get back in the game, the Danish manager made two changes at half time, replacing Aggie Beever-Jones and Hanna Bennison with Katja Snoeijs and Izzy Christiansen. Sorensen confirmed post-match that the decision was not a tactical one, but instead because he " wasn’t happy" and felt his team were "not putting in the effort" that was required to win the game.
"Overall we were not consistent enough in what we did," Sorensen said. "We unfortunately looked a bit in doubt in some situations which I haven’t seen from us before."
He added: "(United) put in a lot of effort. That’s probably the biggest difference; their willingness to run for each other and put in that effort that we were lacking a bit today. In those games here, we have to be consistent for 90 minutes if you want to get something out of it.”
The result saw Everton slip to sixth place in the table, with a visit to fifth-placed Tottenham to come at the weekend. Spurs have won three of their first five league games, and Sunday's encounter looks a more difficult prospect for Everton after the North London club ruthlessly dispatched Brighton 8-0 in their most recent league fixture.
Previewing the weekend's trip to Brisbane Road, Sorensen said: “We’ll analyse this game and take what we can learn from it and then our focus will be on Tottenham.
"We met them in pre-season and I think we know what they want to do, so it's just that we get people back on track and show a good performance away.”
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