Sunderland 1-1 Everton - instant reaction from the Stadium of Light
Sunderland drew 1-1 with Everton on Monday night thanks to Granit Xhaka’s second-half equaliser
Granit Xhaka believes Sunderland did enough to warrant their point against Everton on Monday night, but has told his team mates that they cannot afford to let their standards slip on the training ground.
Xhaka told Sky Sports that he believes the roots of a poor first half hour from Sunderland, in which the visitors took the lead through Iliman Ndiaye, were laid in what he felt was a sub-par final training session before the game. Xhaka's first goal for the club helped to rescue a point in a much improved display from the hosts after the half-hour mark.
"To be honest, we lost the three points today in the first 20, 25 minutes in my opinion," Xhaka said.
"Sloppy with the ball, too many easy mistakes and at this level you get punished. The second half was very good, a lot of emotions, we create many chances and with a little bit more luck we can win this game but in the end we take the one point. Yesterday in training was not our best, and we started today like we finished training. We had that conversation with each other, that at this level, we need to show out standards every day. That's why I think the first 25 minutes was not quite good enough. After that we came back in the game, the last 25 minutes of the first half was much better without creating too many chances. By the end of the second half, I think we deserved one point minimum.
"I believe that how you train, you play. We need to review that first 25 minutes but they are not an easy team to play against, very physical, good players at the front, very compact."
Xhaka also spoke about his return to the Premier League and said that while unexpected, he was determined to help drive Sunderland forward.
"I didn't expect to come back to the Premier League but in football, you never know where you land," Xhaka said.
"After two years in Germany where I had a lot of good things, titles.. it gives you confidence with a coach like Xabi Alonso who played in my position on the pitch, who gives you a lot of good advice. In the end, to be back makes me happy. I knew the project for the club, to bring the experience, to show the guys day by day and hopefully help them. In the end, we have one objective to give everything day by day and see where we land."
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What Régis Le Bris said about Sunderland’s draw with Everton
“We didn't start well, or the opponents started really well, they were better than us, they were dominant,” Le Bris said.
“We were not composed on the ball and we turned the ball over many times, so it was like we fed their dynamic, because they like spaces, they like counter-attacks, they like 1v1s, Grealish, Ndiaye... they are really good when they have space to exploit, and because of our turnovers it was possible to do that.Later in the game I think we were more composed and we dominated the game, but these first 30 minutes were not at the level of the Premier League. I think it was connected with the game plan, we didn't find out something new, it was just a question of doing, and sometimes you can understand where are the spaces, how you can manage the build-up, the progression phase and so on, but it's much harder to do it on the pitch, so it was a question of quality at that minute, but we switched on a bit later and we are back in the game.
“What I can say is that Everton worked hard the first part of the game, they defended well, they ran everywhere and it was tough to break this pressure, so it's a question now of level, we have to lift this part of our game, but I think we have this quality, but we are still a really young team, so we need experiences and with back and forth we will improve our level.”
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