David Moyes has admitted Everton’s embarrassing 5-1 Uefa Cup defeat against Dinamo Bucharest was the low point of his managerial career.
Everton suffered a second-half collapse conceded four goals after the interval to leave their European hopes shattered.
A devastated Moyes said: “This is maybe my lowest ebb as a manager and as bad a night as I have had.
“But it is my responsibility to raise morale as that was my team out there. There will be no public condemnation.”
After watching his team capitulate Moyes said: “I can’t give you an explanation.
“It looked as if we ran out of legs a little bit in the second half but I did not expect that scoreline at half-time.
“I thought we’d played well enough to be in front at half-time, never mind drawing. We were hopeful of a result.
“I’ve experienced defeats before but not any more than tonight,” he added.
“The players showed fantastic spirit in the first half but it looked as if we got lost and they got much better.
“In the first half we did a good job and we could have been in front.
“We controlled the game but in the second half it was too easy for them to score.
“I feel for the fans and it’s my responsibility to raise morale in the camp – it’s my team out there.
“We win together and we lose together and tonight was a night when we’ve all lost together – there’s no criticism of any players publicly, I wouldn’t do that.
“It’s my responsibility to manage and I take full responsibility for all the results, as I do tonight.
“I’ll look to make some changes and see if I can find a winning formula because, at the moment, we’ve not got one.
“Maybe we have to look at the standard of our fitness because we seem to run out of legs.
“We can’t kid ourselves – I felt we played well in the opening part of the season without winning but last Saturday in the defeat against Portsmouth the performance and the result were not good.
“After tonight’s performance you have to say we have made a terrible start to the season – and I have to do something about it.”
Everton skipper David Weir apologised to the fans afterwards.
“I am not sure that we need to speak about what went wrong now but it’s not acceptable and we’re very disappointed,” said the Scot.
“We fell apart and we’re really sorry for the fans. We’ll do our best to turn the tie around.”
