James Tarkowski: Our goal scoring shortfalls are solely our responsibility

Everton defender James Tarkowski has attributed the team's struggle to score goals solely to the players themselves, acknowledging their responsibility for the ongoing winless streak - the longest in nearly three decades.

Manager Sean Dyche expressed his frustration after a 10th match without victory, their worst sequence since a 12-game run came to an end on October 1994, by suggesting there was not much else the coaching staff could do to improve their statistics, which has seen 22 'big chances' created in their seven home league defeats.

Tarkowski accepted, on behalf of the team, it was down to them to turn things around.

"We only have ourselves to blame. If we are not going to score goals, we are going to get punished at some point. We create so many chances that we have just got to win games," he said.

"I am not pointing the finger at anyone in particular; it is everyone. The blame comes on us for not finishing the game off as we got punished by a team who are clinical.

"We have played well so many times, that's why the blame comes on the players because the manager sets us up and we cause teams problems. But if you don't put the chances to bed you are going to get punished at some point.

"We are a high-quality team with high-quality players, so we should be good enough to score more goals."

Dyche's final throw of the dice was to drop Dominic Calvert-Lewin, now without a goal in 21 games, and hand Beto only his sixth league start of the season.

The £24million summer signing from Udinese had a mixed afternoon as, after missing a couple of chances and then failing with Everton's first penalty of the season, he scored only his second league goal with a header from James Garner's hanging cross.

Dwight McNeil should have scored from eight yards out but was denied by Alphonse Areola, one of a number of saves by the Hammers goalkeeper, and Kurt Zouma's headed equaliser gave the visitors a platform from which they nicked late goals from Tomas Soucek and Edson Alvarez.

Everton have scored more than one goal in a league game just eight times this season, three of which came in a four-match winning run in December, and only once since their last victory in mid-December.

Dyche identified that as being a major issue, saying: "Scoring the second has been the nemesis all season.

"You have to kill games off. You either kill it defending or kill it with the ball, creating chances and scoring that second goal.

"If you take the goals out of our game you'd say it was a decent performance from Everton, but I can't keep saying that when you are not winning games so that has to be corrected.

"No excuses, that is what has got to change to get us back to winning ways."

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