Everton Women's manager Brian Sorensen believes his side controlled West Ham for large periods of their WSL opener in East London but rued a lack of clinical edge.
In a weekend that saw many shocks and big headlines including Aston Villa's and newly promoted Liverpool's wins against Man City and Chelsea respectively, one result which went slightly under the radar was the Hammers' opening weekend victory against an Everton side who have been touted to be one of the surprise packages of the season after a dreadful 2021/22 campaign.
Unfortunately for Sorensen's side, they simply didn't live up to the billing at the Chigwell Construction Stadium. Despite controlling possession and the ball on the whole throughout the Toffees, they simply couldn't trouble Mackenzie Arnold enough in the West Ham goal.
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There were half chances created and spurned throughout the 90 minutes but there wasn't one opportunity that stood out which summed up Everton. Of course, making 10 plus signings in a summer means it will take time for the team to gel but the same can be said for the home side, who under Paul Konchesky, have made wholesale changes over the summer in the transfer market.
Nevertheless, the east Londoners, who were outstanding in defence and decent enough in attack, go into their next game against Manchester United with some much needed confidence and belief that they can pull off an early season shock whilst Everton take on their local rivals who picked up a massive and unexpected three points at home to Emma Hayes' side.
However, Sorensen believes Konchesky's side shouldn't have picked up all three points not just due to his sides inability to finish off chances but also the fact that his team did something that the Irons didn't manage to achieve throughout the 90- having overall control of the ball.
"I think it was an intense game, back and forth," he summed up on in house club media. "I actually we felt we had decent control over the game, we were just not good enough to take decent advantage of the ball possession that we had in the game.
"We had the chances. It was more about putting them in and they score on a corner where it's bobbling back and forth and we were not good enough to clear there.
"So, it was unlucky but I was happy with our performance and the mentality of it but we were not sharp to play the ball we had in pre-season, so we have to look into that."
