Everton manager Brian Sorensen has urged his team to be more efficient as they host third placed Arsenal in the Women's Super League on Wednesday night.
The fixture is Everton's first since their disappointing 7-0 defeat away at Chelsea ten days ago and The Toffees will be keen to avoid another heavy defeat.
And Sorensen admitted that his side will be up against a highly motivated Arsenal side who will be looking to hold onto their Champions League spot.
The last time these two sides played in the WSL was back in December when Arsenal won the game 1-0. In that game, Arsenal had 33 shots and Sorensen admits they need to prevent Arsenal from doing the same again this time.
Sorensen said: "This is something we have to do. In that game we were not efficient and we could have had a smash and grab at the end but it would not have been fair if you look at the game picture.
"Tomorrow we try to be more efficient in our press so they do not have these shots on goal. However, out of the 33 probably 15 of them were from outside the box which is not so dangerous but we will definitely try to improve that."
Reflections on the Chelsea game
In the ten days that have passed since the 7-0 drubbing away at Chelsea, Everton boss Brian Sorensen has had plenty of time to assess the performance and where his side went wrong. And even though the result was extremely disappointing, Sorensen was keen to look at the positives.
"Of course it was disappointing, but watching it back and also my feeling at the time was that for large parts of the first half, we actually played some of the best football we have played against a top four side," says Sorensen. "We played through them, breaking their lines but we were not efficient at all. And defensively it is hard to tell what actually went wrong. There is stuff we could have done earlier to avoid getting in those situations but their clinical finishing was top top class.
"Five shots and five goals says it all. Sam Kerr gets injured and you can just put in Pernille Harder who is probably in the top five players in the world says it all. But I was pleased watching the game back with how we kept playing and kept trying to do the things we do.
"I have been looking back at myself in terms of did we prepare well enough for it. We really focusses on transitions but they built through us and scored. So yeah, it is a tough one to swallow but we reflected on it and we keep practising on our defensive shape going into another tough opponent.
"[Against Arsenal] we need to play the same type of football but then we need to be more clinical. We actually set up three or four times in the first twelve minutes but we did not capitalise on it. Football is about scoring goals but then in the defensive part of the pitch we need to get stuck in once more and we need to work together more as a unit to put pressure on the ball earlier."
Being back at home
The Toffees boss was also asked about the benefit of being back at home to take on Arsenal and whether that would help his side. And Sorensen admitted that it was nice to be back playing at home.
"Before the last three away games we have the best away defensive record in the league so I think we are comfortable playing anywhere. But of course being at home is always nice and we will try and show our fans that even though we cannot mathmatically finish any higher in the league, we will try and finish off as good as possible."
Building towards next season.
Now that Everton's league position is pretty much confirmed, attention has already turned to how the Merseyside team can build on this season and improve next year. And Toffees manager Sorensen confirmed in this press conference that they are close to announcing their first summer signing already.
"I think top half is where we saw ourself [this season]. This has been a rebuild season and so we said if we reach top half then we are happy. Now it is how can we do the right recruitment this summer so we become more consistent and push a bit harder.
"We need a little more recruitment, not much but three players and then improve the consistency in the group that we have. I have been here a whole season almost now and I have learned about the different teams and different managers and how we go about attacking them. It has been a good learning curve for me to learn the league and how others do things so we have a counter meaure against them.
"We would probably look for less loan players, but having loanees in is where we are in the food chain and we are comfortable with it and happy to give them a platform. But we will probably have one or two less than this season but that is not business done now but it is done in the last three or four weeks before the transfer window closes.
"But we are doing our business now and we are close to securing someone now which in the near future we will release."
Everton host Arsenal in the WSL on Wednesday 17th May with kick off at 18:15pm.