Ronald Koeman has said he harbours more doubts over the quality of Everton’s forwards than defenders following the emphatic defeat at Chelsea before the international break.
The Everton manager has spent the past fortnight stewing over a 5-0 thrashing at Stamford Bridge, the team’s heaviest defeat in more than seven years, and a performance that he admitted “went wrong in every aspect of football”.
Rather than castigate a defence that had conceded only eight goals in 10 league games prior to Chelsea, however, Koeman believes the defeat exposed deficiencies in Everton’s attack. And he has demanded a reaction from Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley, Yannick Bolasie and co against Swansea City on Saturday.
Asked whether Joel Robles should replace Maarten Stekelenburg in goal after the latter’s ineffectual display at Chelsea, Koeman replied: “If I analysed every position of the game at Chelsea then I would need to change the whole team. You need to analyse what happened and, as a manager, I don’t like to change every week because I believe in the team and in players.
“If a player gets a chance you need to give him confidence not only for the game and for next week. You need to deal with the result and what we like to improve. Our attacking part of the team is the position where I have the most doubt about players at the moment. I lost my temper not straight after the Chelsea game but when I watched it again two or three days later and analysed what happened. We need to react. We need to be Everton, how we like to work, how we like to play and how we like to press.”
Despite talking up Lukaku’s potential to play for a major European club, Koeman did not exclude the Belgium international from his critique of where Everton must improve. He said: “It’s about the goals and the assists of the rest of the strikers. They need to improve and they need to be more productive. Also the work-rate of the midfield and strikers in how we press in our offensive play.
“Of course we made big mistakes in the first two goals. The first one, against [Eden] Hazard we had [Ashley] Williams and [Seamus] Coleman. It was a two-on-one situation but he still has a free shot. That is impossible.
“I understand it is difficult because we need to press more and they need to change their attitude. Like Romelu. I can’t advise him on finishing in the box because I was not a striker and he is one of the best finishers I have ever seen in football. But I can teach him how he needs to press, how he needs to run, and how he can make it difficult for the defenders of our opponents. If he wants to be that top striker, he needs to improve that aspect.”
Koeman has confirmed his interest in Memphis Depay should the Manchester United winger become available in January but insists he is not only seeking reinforcements up front. “Our priority is not only attacking positions,” he said. “We have some positions where we are looking forward to getting better players in. January is hard and if we don’t get the right player in then we don’t sign players. We will wait. But we are confident we will do business.”
