Southampton boss Nathan Jones says Everton are one of the most direct teams in the Premier League after victory yesterday.
Despite falling behind to Amadou Onana's header six minutes before the break, the Saints hit back in the second half and claimed a vital victory thanks to James Ward-Prowse's brace. The England international's second goal was a trademark free kick with just 12 minutes remaining.
"With the greatest respect, they went Land of the Giants at the end; putting everything into the box,“ Jones said after the game.
“To be fair, they were far more direct than we were and, with the greatest of respect, I won't speak about any other thing, but we had to really defend a bombardment.
“They are massive, they are huge. They go into Calvert-Lewin, Pickford kicks it a mile, I can't remember a side, maybe Newcastle, but I can't remember many Premier League sides being bigger than them."
Off-the-pitch turmoil at Everton dominated the build-up to the match with Blues supporters staging a peaceful sit-in after it had finished. Chants of 'sack of the board' and 'you're not fit to wear the shirt' could be heard, and Jones admitted the negativity around Goodison is something his side tried to feed off.
“Any negativity we feel we can jump on but we had to set the tone and we never really did that first half," he said. “There were spells when we were aggressive and created opportunities without quite finishing the action and then when they got the goal that relieved that pressure.
“We knew we had to get that back and we knew we had to go really aggressive after half-time and we did it and we got the goal and then we felt that was the turning point in the game.
“I thought we were excellent second half. One we had to defend our box and then we had really good opportunities. I think we could have had more."