Everton chief Farhad Moshiri admits he believes they should be doing better this season under manager Marco Silva.
Everton sit 11th in the table, having won just one of their last eight Premier League matches. They have 27 points, the same tally they had at the same stage a year ago, and are 17 points off fourth.
"We are very serious about what we want to do," Moshiri told the club's AGM.
"I look at the table and it is just not good enough, I think we know that. We need to go up the table.
"We've had bad luck, poor judgement, but I feel the business we did in the summer shows we are in the right direction, but it has been difficult.
"We did our homework and we put a big bet on Marco and we stick with him.
"He has our total support and we have a professional Marcel Brands who monitors the progress.
"Consistency has been an issue, but we have had terrific performances and the challenge in the second half is to have more of those performances.
"The football management team are totally focused on it. We know what we are and I'm comfortable."