Jagielka: Final third not good enough

Phil Jagielka has criticised Everton’s “sloppy final third”, insisting “there are things to work on”

Jagielka: “The easiest thing to sort was to sort our defensive problems and we’ve been pretty decent since after Christmas, so it is something to build on.

“Tonight, we had a couple of opportunities to do so and score a couple of goals but the confidence isn’t quite there yet.

“We just need a good game or two. Strikers are the hardest ones to get because putting the ball in the back of the net is the hardest thing to do.

“We’ve created a couple of good chances tonight but the forwards have not taken them. We will take as many positives as we can but the fact of the matter is, we’ve come away with nothing.

“He’s (Martinez) proud about the way we defended so resolutely but he knows we were sloppy in the final third. There are things to work on,” he said.

“But there is no point in being aggressive after the game. We will look at the video and go through things together.

“I wouldn’t say we put in a particularly bad performance today, I just think we were a little unfortunate.”