Koeman wants to see more improvement from Everton

Everton huffed and puffed their way through to the playoff round of the Europa League, struggling to beat Slovak side MFK Ruzomberok 1-0 away and 2-0 overall on aggregate.

After the game, manager Ronald Koeman was pleased by the result but admitted the team still had work to do.

“I think we were better defensively tonight than we were last week.

“But we know that we can and need to improve in our ball possession. We had a lot of space for one of the two centre-backs in the first half and we need to dribble in and create more than we did.

"It was a really physical game and 90 minutes that the players need in pre-season. We are through to the next round, the job is done and I'm really happy.

"The Europa League has always been important for me. I like to be in Europe - it's important for our experience. It's good for the club, the players and the fans. It's not easy to reach the group stages but we will do everything to get there.”

The Blues lone goal of the night came from youngster Dominic Calvert-Lewin who came on with just over twenty minutes left to play and immediately made a mark with his running, leading to the goal.

"Maybe Dominic [Calvert-Lewin] feels a bit more comfortable out of the system we played tonight, where he is one of two strikers.

“He got more space. He's strong, he's fast and he scored a great goal.

“He is one of our young players. It is all about productivity that we need and of course I will count on him this season. It’s all about training and performances. We need competition and it’s good that he is providing that.”

When asked if there was any update on the Gylfi Sigurdsson transfer saga, he had some thing positive to say to the fans.

"I don't have an update today, because I did not speak to anybody," Koeman said.

"I was fully focused and concentrated on the game tonight and maybe we get some good news tomorrow."