Rafael Benítez, the Everton manager, admits there is “something missing” from his team but believes their character will return before their injured players.
Benitez was left frustrated after last night’s 2-1 defeat away to Wolverhampton Wanderers left him with a third straight loss.
The Spaniard is without Yerry Mina, Lucas Digne, Abdoulaye Doucouré, André Gomes and Dominic Calvert-Lewin to injury.
Benítez admitted he was alarmed by the lack of character Everton showed in a below-par first-half performance that saw them trail to goals from Max Kilman and Raúl Jiménez before Alex Iwobi pulled one back in the second half.
“Yes, because I know the team is working very hard in training and when we play the games the intensity is not quite there, so it’s quite surprising,” Benitez said. “But when we are in front of the fans we are missing something.
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“Clearly we are missing some important players — the top scorer from last season (Calvert-Lewin) and it’s not like it’s one or two players but not even four. At the same time we have players who have played too many minutes.
“We are close to getting something but at the moment we are missing this. But we are close — against West Ham we were drawing and against Watford, we were winning 2-1. This intensity could make a difference.”
Benítez added: “Let’s not forget this team beat Brighton and drew against Manchester United, so this team has showed character so we can fight in a way we didn’t do in the first half.
“We weren’t happy with the first half but the intensity came in the second half when we created chances. We didn’t do it in the first half because we were poor. But we still had a couple in the first half without playing well.”
Benítez insists confidence is not a problem among his squad.
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“We know the situation and the intensity so they are capable of showing that character like we showed in the second half,” he said. “The fans said after the first three games that this was the best football they had seen for a while and we can get back to that.”
Jiménez scored his 50th goal for Wolves in all competitions and his first at Molineux since fracturing his skull a year ago this month.
A fourth win in five has lifted Wolves to seventh in the table and the Mexican is urging his team-mates to believe in themselves.
“We have to dream big — we have to keep going with being brave, it doesn’t matter who we face,” the 30-year-old striker said. “We have to play our game and have the ball.
“That feels really good to be back on the scoresheet here at home.”
