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Everton are shooting themselves in the foot, admits boss Roberto Martinez.

The Blues lost 3-2 at home to leaders Leicester City on Saturday despite dominating large spells of the game.

Martinez says his side conceded “very, very poor” goals as the visitors struck two penalties and one form open play.

And asked if he felt Everton were shooting themselves in the foot, Martinez said: “Yes we are.

“I think we weren’t at our best. I think the previous two games I thought we were fantastic for periods and the previous three draws were very unfortunate and on Saturday, up to a point it’s a very different type of game.

“We’re playing against a top of the league team, full of confidence and full of belief and you saw that. I just thought that scoring two goals against a well organised side should be enough to win a football game and I just thought that the three goals we conceded were very, very poor from our point of view. But it’s where we are.

“It’s where we need to learn and it where we need to become better, individually and as a team to make sure no-one is allowed to come to Goodison, frustrate the atmosphere, frustrate the referee and frustrate our play.

“It’s the nature of this season’s competition that anyone can get points of anyone, with Leicester the biggest example.

If we keep a clean sheet - and we dominated their counter attacks and their real threat - it’s a game we could win comfortably and that’s the difference. We shouldn’t allow Leicester to score three goals.

“It’s about what we can do about the situation.”

Martinez insists Everton’s defensive set-up had nothing to do with their downfall at the weekend but, instead, it was poor concentration when they were in control of the game that let them down.

“The defensive set up has nothing to do with it because two of the three goals came from our throw ins and our possession, but we probably felt that we were so in control that we weren’t thinking that we could be punished by Leicester,” he said.

“The first action was very unfortunate from Ramiro when he asked the referee to make a decision when there was no real need and no real threat.

“We all know Leicester have the best counter attacking weapon in the league and probably the only time that Mahrez is allowed to run at our centre-halves is for the Vardy run at that was a very heavy punishment for the times Leicester broke at our goal.

“We need to learn quickly. That was the biggest problem from getting a good result or not.

“We need to become a bit more experienced and develop quicker know-how of what you need in a game which Leicester had. They knew exactly what they were doing. They knew how to control the frustration of the fans, how to control the restarts and that was a real contrast of two teams in that point of view. One with a lot of talent and a lot of young, ambitious players but who need to develop know how quickly.”