Ronald Koeman’s tweet after Everton loss results in inevitable reaction

Everton suffered a heavy defeat on Thursday night.

Ronald Koeman's side played Atalanta away in the Europa League, and fell to a 3-0 loss to the Italian side. The only positive from the game is that Everton are unlikely to play this poorly again for the remainder of the season. They were abject, putting in a disjointed and passive performance. They also looked a lesser team than the one that finished seventh last year, despite spending £150m on their squad during the summer. Everton have now lost three games in a row, and next up is Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday. The fixture list hasn't been kind to the Toffees, so their form could pick up in weeks to come. However, Everton fans will be concerned about the team's lack of pace in the final third and the absence of a proven striker to lead the line. They have had just four shots on target in their last three games. Ronald Koeman isn't hiding from criticism. Following the loss to Atalanta, the Everton manager took the blame for the poor result and performance.

"Our ball position was poor but most painful was in the first half - they showed more aggression, they showed more passion. That's really painful because it starts with that and then you need quality on the ball. I asked myself questions on what I was doing wrong against Tottenham, because it's not how I like to see my team. We can play bad football, we can miss chances, but the commitment and passion Atalanta showed in first half was much bigger than we showed. This is not the time or place to criticise players, I need to criticise myself because the team was not prepared for this tonight."

Koeman is also one of the few Premier League managers with an active Twitter account, and he regularly tweets to his 1.14m followers. The former Barcelona defender posted a tweet on Thursday night, following the 3-0 loss, saying his team lacked the "right attitude" and urged everyone associated with Everton to stick together. https://twitter.com/RonaldKoeman/status/908435847028133889 https://www.instagram.com/p/BZCSmnxF9z5/ This is standard talk from a manager after a disappointing result, but Koeman at least fronted up in a way most managers would not. It's also not the first time he has reflected on a poor result on Twitter, posting this after Everton lost 3-0 to Spurs last Saturday: https://twitter.com/RonaldKoeman/status/906564060614971392 However, Koeman also received a lot of backlash for his tweet on Thursday, which is, unfortunately, the sad reality of life on Twitter. Here are some of the kinder responses to the Everton manager's tweet. https://twitter.com/davidjbricey/status/908444631154733057 https://twitter.com/daveybwavertree/status/908443109440270337 https://twitter.com/efc_owenshaw/status/908436080944443392 https://twitter.com/shaun85smith/status/908437666559119361 https://twitter.com/Tom_Cagsey/status/908436206781857793 https://twitter.com/SJM1878/status/908436414370545670 https://twitter.com/sfcdavid/status/908439099509526530 https://twitter.com/podefc/status/908437670644379648 https://twitter.com/FinKitch/status/908436301896089600 https://twitter.com/TheEFCway/status/908450641906892800 https://twitter.com/sunscreemer/status/908442129181155335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.joe.co.uk%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php And, as Phil Neville noted, some other responses weren't as considered. Hopefully Ronald had his notifications turned off. https://twitter.com/fizzer18/status/908437122805362693   https://twitter.com/sunscreemer/status/908442129181155335