“I think you always have to be disappointed after losing a game”.
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It’s notable because there are no easy games in the top flight anymore and that was brought home previous year in the season opener against Watford – Everton needed Arouna Kone to rescue a point against the newcomers – and in what was supposed to be a comparatively easy run of games over the final five weeks of 2015 but which yielded just one win in six, that a last-gasp win at ultimately doomed Newcastle.
“You look to his qualities he needs to be the key player between defenders and strikers, in a position to create and defensively be part of a team – in all aspects he can and needs to improve”, Koeman said. “We showed the clips and there was no escape”, he said ahead of Saturday’s clash against Middlesbrough.
Unbeaten in five games and on a four-match winning streak in all competitions, Everton under Ronald Koeman have done all that could be asked of them since the 1-1 draw with Tottenham: beat the team in front of them.
“It’s more how he used to play”.
“The player is strong enough to work harder to do better pressing”.
“That is the past, in my opinion, what counts is what happens now”. Home team played two games, shared the points with Tottenham 1: 1 and defeated Stoke City 1: 0.
Once he gets going, the Toffees frontman can be a deadly marksman, last season he managed 18 goals in the Premier League with half of those coming in a nine-match spell and this is Middlesbrough’s biggest test to date by some margin.
“In all the aspects he can improve – and he needs to improve”. George Friend’s torrid display at left back in Boro’s defeat to Crystal Palace could see the 28-year-old specifically targeted by Miralles on the Everton right and that must be a huge concern for Aitor Karanka.
“He will be selected”.
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“Not today, not next week – but, of course, if he is still that player we need, then we will start talking about next season”.
