Brian Sorensen on Everton’s amazing track record of derby day success against Liverpool | OneFootball

Everton Women following derby win over Liverpool at Anfield (Everton Women Twitter)

Everton have had a strong recent track record against local rivals Liverpool when it comes to the Women’s Super League – so it’s no wonder Toffees head coach Brian Sorensen was delighted to face the Reds at Anfield on the first day of the season.

In 2022-23, after their first match was postponed and their second match was a defeat, Everton bounced back with a 3-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield.

In 2023-24, Everton lost their first two matches before a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield.

Last time round, Everton’s first WSL win of the campaign didn’t come until November – when they beat Liverpool 1-0 at Goodison Park.

This time, they got their season off to a winning start with a 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool at Anfield.

Incredibly, they have now played six times at Anfield – and won all six matches.

“We started off the season how we want to start it off, which has been a struggle in the last couple of years I’ve been here,” Sorensen told the club’s official website after the match. “It’s probably good we played Liverpool, because we always get the first win against them!”

Brian Sorensen: We get our heads down again

Liverpool took an early lead through Cornelia Kapocs before Ornella Vignola and Katja Snoeijs sent Everton in at half-time 2-1 up.

“That gave us the belief – we came back to the game,” said Sorensen.

And Vignola completed her hat-trick in the second half to give the visitors victory.

“We talked about how we need to approach the game a bit better, and we did that in the second half,” said Sorensen of his half-time team talk.

He made three half-time substitutes despite being in the lead, with Katie Robinson, Hayley Ladd and Honoka Hayashi replaced by Karen Holmgaard, Ruby Mace and Clare Wheeler, and he is pleased about the strength in depth he now has to call on.

“We can change things up, different personnel. We were struggling a bit down the right side in the first half, not because Katie [Robinson] or [Honoka Hayashi] were doing bad, it was just we were a bit too alone. But then we can put Karen in, who’s physically a different type to Katie, and we made sure that they weren’t actually getting through in that right side in the second half at all.”

But despite his pleasure at a fine result, his attention now quickly turns to the next match – at Goodison Park, against Tottenham Hotspur, on Sunday, 14th September.

“It was one game, we got the win, we’re happy, but we get our heads down again and next week we go – it’s going to be a tough game against Spurs, but I’m sure we have the qualities to make it a good one also.”