Ronald Koeman says that Everton’s lack of commitment was the most painful aspect of the defeat to Atalanta.
The Blues started their Europa League campaign with a defeat on Thursday evening as they fell 3-0 to the Italian side.
It was an all round miserable evening for Koeman’s team as they once again looked lacklustre in defeat.
While a 3-0 defeat and poor performance was a disappointment, Koeman says it is the lack of effort that hurt him most.
“A lot went wrong, except maybe after a difficult start there was ten minutes that we had better possession and was more comfortable but our ball possession was poor,” he told BT Sport.
“The most painful thing in the first half was that Atalanta showed more aggression and more passion and that’s really painful. In my opinion it starts with that and then you need quality on the ball.
“It’s a good question to the manager because I asked myself the question ‘what am I doing wrong?’ after the second half against Tottenham because it’s not the way I like to see my team.”
“We can play bad football and miss chances to score but the commitment and passion that they showed to us in the first half was much bigger than we showed together.”