David Moyes and Ronald Koeman have their say following Sunderland's 3-0 defeat to Everton at the Stadium of Light.
Overall performance
Moyes: “I thought we had some good play going forward. We counter-attacked quite quickly. We didn’t always pick the right pass or make the right choice. We tried to get Adnan closer to Jermain [Defoe] and I thought Adnan had some really good moments with the ball. Duncan [Watmore] was a threat. There were things where we looked liable to make an opportunity but if we didn’t get them we didn’t take them or there weren’t enough.”
Koeman: “I was really angry at half time. We had good defending – that wasn’t the problem – the problem was when we had ball possession in the midfield and up front. We lost too many balls. Sometimes you need to make hard decisions to hope for a good reaction. That came in the second half. I know my players, I know the levels they can show and that was the level they reached in the second half."
Romelu Lukaku
Moyes: “He is a top striker, but we made it easy for him. He didn’t have to work too hard for his goals. I do think they have got a very good centre forward in Lukaku, though. We just didn’t defend crosses well enough – whether it be stopping them, heading them or picking up in the box. We didn’t do those simple fundamentals well.”
Koeman: “I did not have doubts about him. It is unbelievable how good he can be. Strikers look to score goals and there was a little doubt in his mind when he didn’t score for so long for Everton. I told him the best answer is on the pitch and he showed his quality with the goals tonight. It was a great performance.”
Final word
Moyes: "We had a young side out but that's no excuse when you are in the big league. You've got to show you can step up. You have to give Everton credit. They put in a couple of really good balls to pick people out from crosses but more importantly, for me, we weren't in the right positions to defend the crosses. There were some good moments but I was really disappointed, especially with the last 30 minutes or so. We just didn't do the basics in defence correctly and because of that we got punished."
Koeman: “I think we will be one of the teams who fight for European football. That's a really realistic target. We showed that today in the second half - but if we play like the first, I think we will be in 13th or 14th place. We need to fight for European football. The players showed the level they can be at and that was in the second half. They are not stupid. They know how they can perform.”
