Everton targeting better start than in previous seasons says Sørensen | OneFootball

Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that his side are targeting a better start to the season than what they’ve achieved in his previous two years in charge.

The Merseyside club have lost both of their opening day matches under Sørensen. They lost 1-0 at West Ham United in 2022/2023 and went down 2-1 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion last season.

Brighton & Hove Albion are Everton’s opening day opponents again this year with The Blue Girls making the trip to Sussex this weekend. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Everton boss Sørensen said that his side are aiming for a better start.

“We want to start as well as possible,” Sørensen said. “In the last couple of seasons when I’ve been in charge, we haven’t but we kicked on later. Hopefully, this season we can have a better start. We want to be super-ready going into the game.”

Brighton & Hove Albion have made a whole host of impressive signings over the summer and will be very much a new-look team this weekend. Sørensen hasn’t analysed The Seagulls too much, he has instead put the focus on his own team.

He said “We’ve been focusing on ourselves. They haven’t played any games in this league, so we won’t be able to get any footage of them. They went to Spain and there was also no footage there.

“They’ve brought a lot in, were active on deadline day and added a couple more. We will have to see what they come with.

“I have a pretty good idea of how Dario [Vidošić] will want to play having watched a couple of Melbourne City games. He will probably try to have the same structure. Who they are going to play as the wingers, the nine, the 10s, they have so many options now.

“We are looking forward to seeing ourselves play and we are ready for the task.”

Everton’s last campaign was heavily disrupted by injuries. Sørensen explained that the club have analysed last season’s injury woes and they are planning for a healthier 2024/2025.

He said “It’s something we looked at, we analysed where a lot of the injuries came from. We especially looked internationally because it was tough Nations League games then our league games were tough. We analysed that, how we play and how they are positioned with their national teams because sometimes they’re getting exposed to different kinds of positions.

“We will prepare them better and have better dialogue with the national teams because 60-70% of the injuries that we got were in and around national team periods. We have hopefully learned from it and can manage it better. There were also a lot of freak accidents that we hope will not happen again this year.”

Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon.