Ronald Koeman accused his players of lacking "passion and aggression" as they flopped in Italy.

The Everton boss is under pressure after three defeats including a 17 minute, three goal demolition by Atalanta.

Koeman, who spent £130million in the summer, said his side were not performing like a team - and accepted blame for the defeat.

They were taken apart with goals from Andrea Maseillo Bryan Cristante and Alejandro Gomez.

Koeman could not believe what he witnessed (
Image:
Reuters)
Everton suffered an embarrassing start to their Europa League group stage campaign (
Image:
REUTERS)

Koeman said: “Of course I share the fans anger. It’s a big lesson today.

“They showed to us the passion you need to have when you play football.

“The question to myself is what I did wrong?

“It’s easier to criticise the players, the team, and individual mistakes but the team was not prepared well for what it saw in the first half.

The Dutchman was heavily backed this summer and now comes under pressure (
Image:
Reuters)

“It was a shame I’m really sorry for the fans. Ok, it’s a difficult moment.

“What I saw on the pitch was a big difference between Atalanta and Everton in belief, confidence, aggression and passion.

“We have some great players but they had seven or eight players who fight, who win the battles, and have the right aggression. That was the difference.

“I don’t see a team on the pitch. I see 11 individual players. They try to do their best. We have new players. Players need time to adapt to the intensity maybe, because they are young.”

Koeman said he warned his side to watch Atalanta danger man Alejandro Gomez (
Image:
REUTERS)

Koeman warned his side about Atalanta’s danger man Gomez saying: “Yeah we knew that - we showed the clips and that's unbelievable.

"We showed eight clips of the play of Gomez and how he is right footed from the left and he still got a free shot and scored a great goal.

“But I need to ask myself what I did wrong."

Everton are short of confidence and Koeman conceded: “Your best game is when you play full of confidence. Maybe that’s one of the reasons our ball possession is not good.

“Too many mistakes, and the third goal is a big example of our poor ball possession.”