James Tarkowski admitted he and his teammates understand fan frustrations but back manager Frank Lampard to turn results around following the last-minute defeat against Wolves.
Rayan Ait-Nouri's late finish condemned Everton to a fourth consecutive defeat across all competitions, with Julen Lopetegui's side coming back from 1-0 down to lift themselves off bottom place. Yerry Mina had opened the scoring for the home side inside seven minutes before some sloppy defending allowed Daniel Podence to level 15 minutes later.
The Toffees pushed for a winner but failed to carve out any significant late chances, and with bodies piled forward, substitute Ait-Nouri fired home as boos engulfed Goodison Park. Another defeat has heaped further pressure on Lampard, who sees his men potentially facing another relegation battle, but Tarkowski insists the players are behind their manager.
MATCH RECAP: Look back on how every kick of Everton vs Wolves unfolded
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“Bit of a sickener," Tarkowski told Prime Video when asked for his thoughts. "I thought we were the better team, we implemented a style of play that we were all happy with, I thought we moved the ball well most of the time but then we got punished late on with a typical Wolves goal in a counter-attack.
“We understand the frustration [of the fans] because the results aren’t good enough, but from my point of view, I thought we were the better side so we have to take positives from that and keep our heads up. There’s some experienced players in there so we need to get round the younger lads who maybe haven’t been in this situation before.
“We’re together as a group. We back the manager and he backs us. We have performed poorly at times this season but that definitely wasn't that. We were the better team and looking for the goal late on and just get punished, maybe we threw one too many bodies forward and got caught out.”
Everton might not have needed to commit so heavily, had they taken one of several chances throughout the game. Anthony Gordon, Neal Maupay and Alex Iwobi were all guilty of squandering decent chances while many others saw their final ball wanting.
Asked what Everton needed to turn the tide, Tarkowski added: “Goals. If we put one of our chances away then I think we’d have won the game comfortably. Obviously it’s going to be worrying from the outside, looking at results, but I look at my teammates and the way we’re playing and I’ve got full belief in us to go out there and pick up wins.
“We just need to keep sticking to what we do.”
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