‘We want to start games better’ – Sørensen identifies clear target for Everton to improve | OneFootball

Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that his side are aiming to start games better.

The Blue Girls kicked-off 2025 with a 1-1 home draw against Aston Villa last weekend. Everton needed an 89th-minute Veatriki Sarri goal to rescue a point on Merseyside.

Everton have not scored a goal in the opening 30 minutes of a league match all season and manager Sørensen says that his side must aim to start games better in the second half of the campaign.

“We want to start games better and that’s something that we’ve been speaking about,” Sørensen said when addressing the media in an Everton press conference. “Now, we have that quality from the bench that can come in and make the difference, which they certainly did [against Aston Villa].

“It’s about pushing everyone to perform better because they all want to start. Training has been really good; there was good intensity when we were playing 11 v 11, which is also something that we have been struggling to do for quite a while.

“It’s good to have that [competition] and that we can change the game up. In previous games, it has been a struggle because we have been able to come back from conceding early goals but we haven’t been able to win. If the last game had lasted just 10 minutes more, I think we would have won it. It’s good that we have that confidence, we can change it up but we certainly want to do better from the beginning.”

Everton’s latest Barclays Women’s Super League fixture sees them travel to West Ham United. Sørensen wants his side to go to East London and implement their game confidently.

He said “They have a plan, they have an idea of what they want to do. They have good structure in the team and really good offensive quality which sometimes shines. They’ve had the same problems as we have in terms of getting the reward.

“I watched them against Tottenham and they deserved that win, they were the better team, so we know it’ll be a tough challenge, especially at their home ground.

“We are getting going with the squad that we have now, we just need to have games to grow more. The signs have been really good and I expect us to go there and try to be the better team.”

Victory would put further distance between Everton and the bottom of the table but Sørensen is focusing on the game rather than rankings.

He said “We focus on the task at hand and make sure that we maximise everything to get the three points, regardless of if it’s Chelsea, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Arsenal or whoever it is.”

Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at West Ham United kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon.