Everton ‘comfortable’ with their process ahead of trip to Leicester City says Sørensen – WSL Full-Time
Following a 2-1 opening day defeat to Melissa Phillips’ Brighton & Hove Albion, Brian Sørenson’s Everton side will be looking to bounce back against The Foxes who put four past newly-promoted Bristol City to kick-off their campaign.
Despite labelling his side’s performance last weekend as a ‘slow start’, Sørensen saw plenty of positives from The Blue Girls, particularly praising the way that they came out in the second half.
“We were creating chances and we got ourselves back into the game,” Sørensen said when speaking in an Everton press conference. “We felt from 15 minutes to 75, we were in good control. They (Brighton) only had one shot on goal in the second half, but it was frustrating that we couldn’t at least get a point.
“We’re pretty clear on what we want to do and how we want to play. There’s always competition, but there are maybe one or two changes in the starting line-up that we’re looking at and we have some players coming back from injury. We are very comfortable with where we are in the way we want to do things.”
One Evertonian who stood out after signing for the club over the summer was former AC Milan striker Martina Piemonte. The Italian had six shots on goal, ranking her third for shots across the opening weekend of the Barclays Women’s Super League. She’s someone who her teammates will be looking to feed a lot of balls into this season to create opportunities.
“I expect her to play a big part this season; that’s why we brought her in,” Sørensen said. “Like the rest of the team, it took her time to get going, but as soon as she got into it, there were a lot of free-kicks on her that we could’ve utilised better. She’s very strong and obviously, the other players still need to get to know her.”
Everton will be coming up against a very familiar face in former boss Willie Kirk when they travel to the East Midlands on Sunday, but that doesn’t faze Sørensen’s side as he knows his team have a job to do to get points on the board. Under Kirk’s guidance, Leicester City clinched league survival on the final day of last season.
“We played them (Leicester) in pre-season and once last season when he was in charge, so we know what to expect and that’s what we’ve been preparing for this week,” Sørensen said. “He’s a great coach and he’s done well to recruit. He made sure they avoided relegation last year which was a tough one for them, but they got through it.
“They’ve had a good start, so they’ll be buzzing. We will go there and try to bring them down again.
Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Leicester City kicks-off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon.