More importantly, in the context of an away side who might come to Goodison looking to contain Koeman’s potent attack, they have shown themselves to be risky from set-pieces so far and that will likely be in the Dutchman’s mind as he prepares his men for this one.
Advertisement
“But playing in the way we did in the second half, I’m sure we are going to win games”.
Despite that, however, Karanka was also quick to praise his side for the more-than-adequate start they’ve made to life back in the Premier League following their eight-year exile. “This season is more hard as, with less games, we’ll have less injuries”.
Gareth Barry is set to become the third player in Premier League history to make 600 appearances when Everton host Middlesbrough on Saturday evening. “One example is Adam Forshaw – he’s been here for a year-and-a-half and was waiting for his chance, and when got that, he took it”.
After last weekend’s defeat to Crystal Palace, Boro head to Merseyside looking to upset the odds – and Karanka insists the team remain in good spirits.
Gaston Ramirez came off the bench against Palace after – like Stuani – only arriving back from global duty with Uruguay the previous day, and he will hope for a recall.
Aitor Karanka is keen to learn from Everton boss Ronald Koeman, who he will come up against this weekend.
“I think they are more or less the same as last season”, said the Boro boss. Middlesbrough have only scored five goals in those 11 matches.
“They’re in a good way, but their style is the same”.
“They did not always have to be at their best to win last season but now they have to be all the time”. He lost many balls and a player of that quality can’t lose those kind of balls.
“We are in the Premier League and we are going to win, I hope, a lot of games”.
Last season, the Everton cup defeat represented a rare setback in an otherwise successful campaign.
Boro’s loss at the hands of Palace was their first since returning to the top flight and after two seasons of winning more often than not as they forced their way out of the Sky Bet Championship, that could have come as a culture shock.
“The players are not stupid”, he said. “But we have to be ready because they know we are going to lose a few of them”.
Advertisement
“Why after the win last Monday do I need to change from “we need to fight for European football to we need to fight for the Champions League”?”, he mused.
