Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker was left downbeat after a tough first half left Fulham with too much to do on Sunday afternoon.
Not one minute had been played when Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Everton in front, and although Bobby De Cordova-Reid hit a fine equaliser, another Calvert-Lewin effort and an Abdoulaye Doucoure header put the visitors in control at the break.
The Whites dominated a second half in which Ivan Cavaleiro missed a penalty and Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored his first goal for the Club, but an equaliser proved elusive.
“I take positives from the performance second half but my underlying thoughts at the moment are the first half in terms of the way we approached the game,” Parker said.
“We were second best to a lot of things, but we showed our quality and got our noses back into it at 1-1, but in terms of duels, in terms of 50-50s, in terms of putting your mark on the football match, basics of the game, we didn’t do that well enough.
“We gave ourselves a real uphill task in conceding three goals. In saying that, the second half was much improved, we changed things around a little bit in terms of tactics.
“Second half we performed with exactly what we missed in the first half in terms of battles and understanding the football match.
“If you’re one of the best teams in the world, or you’re Fulham, it’s got to be a given. Certainly first half, we fell short of that at times, and that disappoints me, really disappoints me.
“But second half was much improved, and we showed some quality.”
When asked what he thought led to the below-par opening 45, Parker replied: “Of course there’s individual errors, but I’m not even looking at individual errors at this moment in time. I’m looking at the real basics of the football match.
“Let’s forget tactics, let’s forget good players, let’s forget all of that. Let’s just go into a football match and understand that first and foremost you need to win battles.
“People may look at that and think it’s a really basic thing to say. And of course there’s more to it, but any match in the Premier League you need to show that side to you. And we just fell short.
“Second half we gave a reaction, but that shouldn’t come from a rollicking at half-time. This team can produce what we were missing in the first half. We’ve shown that, we’ve shown that over the course of this season.
“I know we can cause teams problems, we can be successful, I know that for sure. We’re a very good team, but at the same time we have some deficiencies.
“It’s a young team with new players, and that message that we’re driving home is exactly what we’re talking about.”