Speaking at his press conference to preview Saturday’s Premier League campaign-opening clash with Tottenham at Goodison Park, he said: “It is a nice challenge, it is a big project and that project is starting”.
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Everton’s new signing Ashley Williams is paraded before the English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016.
A new era for Everton began with a creditable 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur though Ronald Koeman’s team had to dig deep for it in the face of a strong second-half fightback by the visitors.
Koeman, appointed in June as successor to Roberto Martinez, had claimed ahead of the game that his players were only at 70 per cent of the fitness he wanted.
Everton keeper Maarten Stekelenburg rescued his side in the closing stages when he thwarted livewire Lamela and substitute Vincent Janssen.
“The board make that final decision but of course I want to keep all my best players”. “Stekelenburg looks back to his best after a superb performance against a rejuvenated Tottenham, who seem to have recovered from a shameful display against relegated Newcastle in the last game of the previous season”.
Everton started the second half on the front foot and Tottenham’s Eric Dier had to make two crucial interventions, first to block Deulofeu’s path to goal with a sliding tackle and then to head the resulting corner over his own crossbar.
These two sides are full of promising young English players, and will both be looking to make amends for what can only be described as disappointing campaigns previous year.
That said Everton were specifically set up to frustrate Spurs in attack, shut down attacking lanes, and quickly hit back when possible through Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu. “We are very open, it is not easy to bring in players who can help us but we are trying”.
Everton were without their top-scorer from last season Romelu Lukaku, who injured his heel a week earlier in a friendly and has been linked with a big-money move away from the club. As players we know what we did wrong and what we have got to work on this year.
“How you assess or measure the percentage of how your team is – for me it is very hard”.
“We had a lot of players involved in the Euros and it is always hard that they become fit and ready but I think in the end we need to take a lot of positives”.
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Everton went close again on 15 minutes when Barkley lofted a free-kick into the penalty area and a looping header by Phil Jagielka forced a scrambling Lloris to push the ball over his crossbar.
