Sam Allardyce has admitted to being "hugely disappointed" with his Everton players and has accused them of 'switching off' in their heavy loss against Tottenham Hotspur.
The Toffees suffered their biggest margin of defeat since the former England boss took charge, as they shipped four goals without response at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Everton, denied a first-half goal when Wayne Rooney was flagged for offside, conceded three times in a little over 30 minutes during the second half of the contest.
Allardyce did not hold back at full time, telling reporters: "I think the defining moment in the game was we thought the second goal was offside, probably the same with Wayne's. When the second goal went in and if it was offside it was a killer, but that doesn't allow us to throw the towel in and relinquish that defensive responsibility.
"Too many of our players decided not to defend any more when Tottenham had the ball. I'm hugely disappointed in the professionalism of my players. It's out of order. Play your way back into the game and be professional about it. It shocked me. I haven't seen it since I got here.
"I've got to cut it out, starting tomorrow. It's down to hard work. Tottenham can beat anybody by a lot of goals but they should have had to work a lot harder than they did. We keep foregoing the clean sheet to try and get a result and not getting a result. We need to go back to basics."
Everton failed to record a shot on target for the fourth time in a Premier League match this season.
Daniel Lewis
