Everton's players took part in an honest assessment after the defeat to Newcastle United according to Conor Coady.
Offering a glimpse inside the dressing room, the 29-year-old revealed the team felt the game had "passed them by". The need to be more ruthless and braver on the ball also came up.
Coady, a senior figure thought to be part of the squad's leadership group, also sought to rally his teammates as they chased improvements. He said: "We can't dwell on this... What we have to do is learn from it as quickly as possible because we need to stop this little bit of a run we're on at the minute and get back to our best."
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Everton failed to have a shot on target for the second consecutive game as they fell to a third defeat in three at Newcastle. Miguel Almiron's stunning finish was the difference between the sides as the Blues fought hard but were unable to land a blow on their opponents. The result marked the end of a run of tough fixtures in which Everton were the underdogs heading into each game. But the defeats, though by fine margins, have knocked confidence that was building within the club after a positive start to the campaign.
Coady said honest conversations played out among the players at St James' Park and there is hope of a response when the side returns to Goodison Park to face Crystal Palace on Saturday. He told Everton's club website : "It's huge that we speak, that we talk and address what's going on. We don't just let it pass us by, we're addressing it.
"We spoke about it in the changing room afterwards about what needs to be done and how we need to go about it. There's no need to panic in this situation. It's a long season and we need to bounce back. We need to be brave on the ball when we're going out to play - and there's no better place to do that than Goodison at the weekend.
"But we need to learn from this because we can't let games pass us by. This was a game that I think passed us by and I think we could have got something out of it with the play we had in certain parts but we need to be more ruthless, believe in what we're doing and believe that we're going to score more goals."
Discussing what he felt was missing in the performance on Wednesday night, Coady said: "A ruthless streak, a goal. We needed to push as a team - all of us. We need to be ruthless, we need to be relentless with it. thought we had 10-15 minutes before half-time where they got the goal and it became a bit panicky but you're going to come to places like this and be under that pressure, you have to withstand it.
"We have to be strong enough as a team to withstand that and we stayed in the game. We had the ball [in the second half] but we needed to score, it's as simple as that. As a team, I don't think we did enough to do that. We need to get through a tough patch. We can't dwell on this... What we have to do is learn from it as quickly as possible because we need to stop this little bit of a run we're on at the minute and get back to our best."
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