Sørensen hoping for ‘super-sharp’ Everton when they host Manchester City | OneFootball

Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that his side will need to be ‘super-sharp’ when they play host to Manchester City at Walton Hall Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Blue Girls face The Cityzens in their final game of 2024. Everton have endured a tough first half of the season which has seen them win just one of their nine Barclays Women’s Super League matches.

This weekend’s fixture against Manchester City is one of the toughest challenges and Everton boss Sørensen says that his side will have to be at their best to compete with their opponents.

“I want to see togetherness and that we are committed with everything that we do,” Sørensen said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We will need strong defensive play for sure.

“We always do quite well against [Manchester] City, they’re often tight games. Of course, they are on the ball the most because that’s how good they are but we will try and finish off well before Christmas with a good display. We also know that it’ll be a tough challenge because despite their injuries, they’re playing really well. Their positional play is second-to-none, so we will have to be super-sharp.”

Manchester City are expected to boss the possession at Walton Hall Park and Sørensen says that his side will need to be physically strong and ready to capitalise on their moments in the game.

He said “We need to work really hard in the defence, be really connected but also be brave in the right moments, making sure that we are physically strong. We have people in the middle that can cover some grass and a strong defence. If we get the timing right, we can cause them problems.

“We just need to make sure that we work as hard as we can together and we get those jumps right but also, we have to weather the storm in the right moments. We just need to make sure we manage the game in the right way.

“If we are in-front against teams, we don’t lose often or if it’s goalless going into the last 15 minutes, we manage that pretty well. We just have to manage 90 minutes now in the same manner.”

Everton have six points after nine rounds of matches. While the first half of the season has been tough, Sørensen has seen the positives in his side’s performances.

He said “There were two games against Brighton and Chelsea where we were not at our best but the rest have been even, they’ve been tight; we just need the margins to fall on our side sometimes.

“It’s hard when you are missing key personnel and you have to put something else together week in, week out. The girls have been doing everything they can.

“This league is extremely tough. There are teams around us that probably expect to be higher than where they are with the investments that they’ve been putting in. We just need a bit of consistency and we will be okay.”

Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Manchester City kicks-off at 12.30pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.