Frank Lampard insisted the "effort" is there in Everton's dressing room as he was left coming to terms with mistakes on the pitch.
Speaking after his side slumped to a late defeat in their crucial trip to Burnley, he said: "The effort is there, belief will always be tested. You can see the players are disappointed at the end. There are realities in football, if you make mistakes you'll concede."
His words followed a dramatic 90 minutes in which Everton came from behind to take lead their relegation rivals through two Richarlison penalties.
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But two soft second half goals - Maxwel Cornet's winner coming after Ben Godfrey's tangled clearance fell to Matej Vydra - mean they now sit just one point above the drop zone.
Lampard said there were positives to take from the way his players responded to Burnley's early opener through Nathan Collins, and then Jay Rodriguez's leveller on the hour mark.
He said: "I didn't dislike our start too much. We were slightly off, particularly for the goal, but the reaction was good. We controlled the first half, got our two goals, and in the second half we had opportunities."
But he said a combination of mistakes and failing to take advantage of good chances had proved costly, adding: "Mistakes are mistakes. Generally in football, the critical errors are in your own box and the opposition box.
"We're also not doing enough in the final third. I'm not singling it out at the back end of the pitch...today it was clear, we made mistakes and we weren't clinical enough."
