Rafa Benitez has admitted that everyone at Everton must take responsibility for the mistakes the side are currently making - including himself.
The Toffees have been in a dismal run of form over recent months, leaving them in 15th place in the Premier League table heading into the New Year.
Everton kicked off their 2022 on Sunday with another disappointing defeat, this time losing 3-2 to against Brighton at Goodison Park.
And Benitez believes that last weekend's match was the perfect example of Everton shooting themselves in the foot with the mistakes they made early in the game. The Toffees boss told
evertonfc.com :
"We have had this situation in some games, we punish ourselves. We started the game making mistakes, and that made it more difficult for us.
"Sunday is the perfect example. We conceded after three minutes, after 20 minutes there was the second one and we missed a penalty.
"For me as a manager, you have to take responsibility when you have to put players in a position - you have the issues that you have. You have injuries and you have to adapt.
"Sometimes it's working, sometimes it's not working. Because it's football, everyone has an opinion. Okay you can understand the frustration of the fans, you can understand that everybody can complain.
"At the same time, you have to analyse things with the right perspective. We had some issues, we are trying to solve these issues.
"If we can do that, I'm sure we can be better. But we cannot keep making the mistakes we are already, not just the players but me also.
"If not, we will continue suffering. The first thing we did for example after the game was to watch it again, study the details, talk with the players and start the training session with the things we'd done wrong.
"The high tempo, intensity, commitment, the desire - we have so many positives there we have to take."
Benitez also admitted he doesn't want to make excuses for the run of form recently, but reiterated that it's not been easy to lose the quality of players he has done.
"It's really disappointing to see the team not doing exactly what you are expecting," he added.
"But we know that is the situation now and we have to deal with that. We started really well and that is my point, when I'm optimistic always I want to say that we knew exactly what this team needed - bringing in wingers and full backs to balance the squad.
"We did it and we were doing well, everybody was happy with this situation. But now we have to take responsibility and accept that we're making mistakes and have to improve things.
"I don't want to make excuses, but the reality is that we've had some injuries to players that were crucial last year, the spine of the team.
"Football is not an exact science, you can make mistakes. Overall I'm not happy with the situation, still I am quite positive in terms of how I can see the future.
"Can we fix all the problems in a few months? Obviously no, because every team needs some time to fix their issues.
"But we can see the potential, we can see the possibilities of the future. We have to find solutions to the short-term problems, and I'm sure it will be much better in the future."
Source -
Liverpool ECHO
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