‘The girls did everything they could’ – Sørensen reflects on Everton’s loss at Manchester City | OneFootball

Everton manager Brian Sørensen said that his players did everything they could despite going down 2-0 to Manchester City at The Joie Stadium on Sunday.

A goal in each half from Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema was enough to seal three points for the home side.

Speaking to the media after the match, Everton boss Sørensen couldn’t fault his side’s efforts despite the defeat.

“I think first half, we set up how we wanted to set up and did well,” Sørensen said. “You can’t stop them, you have to give them some space on the pitch; we gave them the wide areas, they can do the crosses early, we can deal with that. I think not so many box entries as they normally had in the first half, shots were from distance and so on and they have to be good if they have to beat Courtney [Brosnan]. In that sense, we were okay, we were happy.

“What I liked a little more was intent in pressing at times central, see if we could get a bit closer to them. We spoke about that at half-time. Second half, the game ran a bit away from us but I think the disallowed goal and Toni [Payne] one-on-one with the keeper, that for me is not offside. There are two key moments and those moments sometimes change football matches.

“Of course, a bit frustrated with that but overall, the girls did everything they could.”

Everton haven’t had an easy time of it so far this season and find themselves in 10th position in the Barclays Women’s Super League table. Sørensen was frustrated that his side again gave a good account of themselves against a top team but were left to rue refereeing decisions.

He said “We need to be good at beating the teams around us. It’s a bonus if we can get three points against City or Chelsea but we know we can do it. We did it at Goodison Park almost, where we should have got a point at least against City and we won against Chelsea, so it is possible. That’s the belief that we have and we go into these games with and that’s why I’m so frustrated with the key moments because we don’t get 30 attacks like City does. We get three or four and we have to be taking those and making sure we put the ball in back of the net. When we do that and it gets disallowed, it’s a bit frustrating.”

Ruby Mace has been a standout player for Everton. She impressed against Manchester City in a defensive role but Sørensen says that the plan is to have her playing higher in the future.

He said “Right now, it’s centre-back because we don’t have a centre-back available. Of course, in the longer plan, it’s probably a bit higher up in that six position, but that’s the good thing about Ruby, she’s so technical, a student, physically there. It’s also when you have to deal with Bunny [Shaw] and [Viv] Miedema, it’s nice to have a player like Ruby to deal with that. I thought she was excellent again today.”

Everton are next in action on Thursday evening when they travel to West Bromwich Albion in the fourth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.