Roberto Martinez defends Everton playing style

Roberto Martinez has said that Everton's new passing style need not mean vulnerability when playing the ball out from defence.

The Toffees lost just their second match of the Premier League campaign at home to Sunderland yesterday, although it was a mistake from Leon Osman that led to the only goal of the game at Goodison Park.

South Korean international Ki Sung-Yueng was gifted a march on Tim Howard after the midfielder miscontrolled a short pass from the American goalkeeper, who saw red after bringing the Swansea City loanee down inside the area.

"[Mistakes do not] need to happen," the Catalan coach told Sky Sports News. "It's one thing to play in a certain way, but a style shouldn't bring risks. Making good decisions is important.

"There is always a transitional period in whatever you want to do. You need to develop experience, and we'll learn from it."

Martinez said that he was "proud" of his team's effort in chasing the game with 10 men, while reserving praise for Black Cats stopper Vito Mannone.

"Today, that incident because of the sending-off, put a major difficulty in the rest of the game, but when you look at the amount of chances and the performance of Mannone, he had two outstanding saves and we should have taken advantage of a couple of other good opportunities," he added.

"I couldn't be prouder. In the second half, we were always a real threat, we worked extremely hard, and I thought tactically we coped with whatever was needed. The normal thing would have been to get something out of the game, but as it happens I'm extremely happy with the performance."

The Merseyside club are fifth in the Premier League table.