Everton manager Sean Dyche is confident that the performance problem that has plagued the team for a year will soon be resolved.
Despite creating 19 chances against Fulham, the Toffees were defeated in the first leg at home, where top-flight top-scoring players lost a record 10 league matches last season.
Central to the issue is the continued unavailability of injury-weary Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is short on preseason minutes meaning he may still be a couple of weeks away from being ready.
However, the arrival of loanee Arnaut Danjuma, who made his debut as a late substitute, and young Sporting striker Youssef Chermiti watching from the stands will hopefully help alleviate the burden as current substitute Neil Maupe squandered many chances as he increased his sad record to one goal in 30 matches for the club.
“Dominic will get some football this week, among other things,” said Dyche, who is still looking for reinforcements but knows he needs to get more out of the limited resources he has.
“He’s coming out of rehab so for the next week or two we’ll be stronger just by our own group and let’s see if we can get something to help us.
“Arnie (Danjuma) is in good shape, in good shape – he knows he is a little behind the curve.
“I’m sure we have to rely (on the players) within the team because that’s what we are at the moment. If we can influence it, we will.”
Everton only had 41 percent possession but made the most of it and with a better finish could have won the game by half time.
Although the result was disappointing, the manner of play was more encouraging than most of the relegations they had when Dyche took over in January and took them to safety on the final day.
“Some of the breaks, some of the moments, the quality of some of the moments were excellent,” added the Toffees boss.
“One of our analysts said that xG, which I don’t have much faith in but is still a benchmark, was around three, which is high in the Premier League.
“Inevitably, this is just a measure, but we have to look at where we have been and where we are now – and that, I think, was a big shift.
“Now we have to find those moments to come out and score goals.
“But today there is a really strong sign, a strong sign of a good team that creates a lot of chances and a lot of good things, so we have to keep faith in that.”
Fulham were lucky to leave Goodison Park with a third win in a row and boss Marco Silva admits there is still a lot of work to be done.
“We need more time to work, our pre-season was not at the level it should be, so we lost some energy,” he said.
“But we were able to win the football match and that shows that we can work.”
