Silva insists business as usual for Everton ahead of the Derby

Everton are plumbing every depth this season, and found another heartbreaking way to lose yesterday at Leicester City.

Speaking after the game, manager Marco Silva refused to address if he would still be in charge for the Merseyside Derby on Wednesday.

“Like I’ve said before many many times, I’m not the person to speak about that. I know what I’m doing. I know what is my job. Tomorrow will be another day for me to prepare another training session.

“I have no doubts that I have the players’ backing. No one can say nothing about the attitude of my players. They showed a reaction.

“It’s just the people who are not with us daily who are not seeing how we are together in this fight. The players are proving this. No one can say anything about their commitment. We will go to Anfield with the commitment we had this afternoon.”

The Blues played well in spots, and for most of the first seventy minutes of the game looked to have kept the hosts quiet. Silva, forced by injuries to retool his side, went with a three-man backline and played a 5-3-2 clogging the middle and defending decently enough.

“It was a very harsh result, we deserved more from that. We changed the formation to three at the back and the players stuck at it. The first 65 minutes we were the best team on the pitch.

“It is not easy for opposing teams to come here and score against Leicester - we scored and had chances to score more.

“We can look at how we conceded the goals but looking at the match and the way our players stuck within the plan and strategy… we did well.

“We were the best team in the first half. We stopped them [from playing], they did not create many chances. When we had the ball, we had our moments, we scored and had good moments in the first half.

“We spoke at half-time about what we could improve with the ball. And we created chances to score and had dangerous set pieces.

“The game was balanced after their equaliser, we changed the formation and played with two strikers. We lost the ball when it [the match] was under control and they scored.”

With the game against runaway league leaders Liverpool looming, Silva was encouraged by the effort his players put forward.

“It is our obligation [to remain confident]. It is what we should do, another game comes quickly and it will be a tough and busy week for us.

“We have to take the positives from today, apart from the result, and prepare well for the match. It will be a tough one again but with this attitude and commitment, we have to go there with ambition and believe we can get a result.

“I never had doubts [about the players’ commitment]. The players know our obligation as Everton Football Club – they showed it this afternoon.

”Together we can change the situation. Teams are scoring in the last minutes, if we lose balls they score every time.

“It will change and this type of fortune will come for us, for sure.”