Jack Rodwell hopes this season's Europa League campaign will improve him as a player.

And he insists that even in defeat, he's learning important footballing lessons.

Rodwell, still only 18, has played five of Everton's six European games so far, including the most recent, a 2-0 home defeat to Benfica.

His manager David Moyes has said that he would have preferred to rest the teenager had it not been for a lengthy injury list, but Rodwell is happy to be getting plenty of minutes on the field.

"It is all good winning and coming off the pitch happy - but it is these types of nights that you have to learn from even more," he said.

"It's a good learning curve. When you lose you have to take it on the chin and that is good experience for young players.

"I am getting a good run in the team but the most important thing for the team is to get the wins."

The next opportunity to return to winning ways is against West Ham on Sunday, with Rodwell explaining that morale hasn't been knocked by the recent indifferent run of results.

"Confidence is always good, we have a good set of lads," he said.

"We have got West Ham at the weekend and it's a massive game for us to try and get three points. We'll try and keep a clean sheet and use that as a base to win the game."