Silva Explains Reasons For Everton Loss

Marco Silva says Everton paid a heavy price for their lack of tempo and mobility against Norwich City after the Canaries scored two unanswered second-half goals to win at Goodison Park.

Everton were unbeaten in three home games prior to Saturday and appeared to be gaining the upper hand over Norwich when the visitors broke for Todd Cantwell to strike on 54 minutes.

Silva’s team responded by forcing the Canaries deep into their own territory for extended periods.

Tim Krul saved twice from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Cenk Tosun was also denied by the away keeper.

And with Everton starting to throw caution to the wind, Norwich substitute Dennis Srbeny wriggled free in stoppage time to fire a low finish past Jordan Pickford and wrap up the points.

Everton had 18 goal attempts and sent seven on target but Silva confessed his side’s performance was short of the quality needed to win a Premier League game.

“It was a difficult afternoon, very disappointing for all of us and our fans,” Silva told evertontv.

"We have to respect all the reactions. I can imagine how [the fans] felt. The message is that I respect what they are feeling, for sure.

"But we have the confidence and we have to keep working really hard to avoid the type of mistakes we made this afternoon and be more strong to stay calm and take the right decisions.

“We did not perform at the level we should. The first half we did not play at the intensity or pace we should and did not have the mobility we needed on the pitch.

“We expected this type of game, with Norwich having strong organisation and being compact.

“We had to play faster, move forwards quickly to disorganise them.

“We didn’t do that in the first half.

“We started the second half in a different way, quicker and trying to create more chances.

“But we made a mistake to concede the first goal and everything was more difficult even if we had enough time to change things.

“We started to be so nervous, not being calm in our play or taking the right decisions."

Everton had only two efforts on goal in the opening 45 minutes but returned for the second half with greater urgency.

Cenk Tosun saw a strike deflected over and, as Norwich tried desperately to clear the resulting corner, defender Christoph Zimmermann blocked Morgan Schneiderlin’s low drive.

Just as Goodison was stirring, however, Cantwell latched onto Teemu Pukki’s prodded through ball to stroke his finish inside Pickford’s left post.

Krul saved two Sigurdsson efforts down to his left and dived the other way to keep out a cross-shot from Tosun.

Richarlison rippled the side netting and Sigurdsson’s cute flick was inches from locating substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin at the far post.

But with Everton poised for a grandstand finish Norwich countered to wrap up the points through German forward Srbeny.

“We created enough to score,” continued Silva.

“But we cannot be happy with the quality of our performance, even if we created some chances.

"In the second-half we created more and had opportunities to equalise.

“Then everything would have been different but the reality is we did not score and we had to stay calm enough to keep playing until the last minutes, to believe we could score an equaliser and go for the second one.

“We needed to keep our balance and not commit mistakes like we did again for the second goal.”

Everton had to wait two weeks to face Norwich following victory over Southampton in their previous Premier League match.

Following this season’s third international break, however, games are about to start coming round much more quickly.

Everton are at Leicester City next Sunday before going to Liverpool three days later and completing a frenetic six-day period by welcoming Chelsea to Goodison.

“We are trying to get some consistency,” added Silva.

“It was our aim to get a second win in a row, to have a good run of results.

“We did not expect an afternoon like this.

“But that is the reality.

“We have to analyse and show them [players] why things happened.

“We went in [to the match] in a good mood, after good performances and results but we had issues [against Norwich] we did not expect.

“We have to react strongly after today. For sure, we can.

“It will be a really tough week for us with three games in six days.

“We have to react strongly and with confidence and get the points away we lost at home this afternoon.”