Daniel Farke has explained his decision to start Teemu Pukki on the bench in Wednesday's 1-0 loss to Everton.

Farke says he believed Pukki might snap his goal drought if he came on as a substitute against a tired second-half defence.

"Teemu knows I will always back him and support him," said Farke. "People are talking about how many minutes since he scored in open play.

"Sometimes to break this dry spell and end the curse it makes more sense to bring him to the game when the opponent is bit more tired and he is coming on fresh. That is what we tried but it didn't work out in terms of the goal.

"But he knows I totally trust him.

"We had 10 games in five weeks, no proper pre-season and pretty hot conditions. For attacking players especially that is tough. We are trying to get some freshness and sharpness into our play so I wanted to rotate a few positions.

"I felt we had quality players to come in and there were also some tactical thoughts as well. Everton is a team who have the most crosses in the entire league, particularly from their full backs, so we needed players on the pitch who were able to track those full backs.

"From there we felt that could develop our attacking game."