Everton caretake manager David Unsworth says that the game against Watford at Goodison Park on Sunday is huge, not just for him and the players, but for the whole club.
Unsworth saw his side throw away a solid performance after just over an hour in Lyon this evening, with Morgan Schneiderlin being sent off after losing possession and the Blues losing 3-0 and effectively ending the Europa League stay.
But he says that his side must stick together and he wants the fans to get behind them too.
“I’m really disappointed with the result,” said Unsworth.
“For nearly 70 minutes we were nearly perfect with our gameplan and created a couple of opportunities that we could and should have scored. To concede the first goal was really disappointing. A lucky ricochet in the middle of the park gets the lad in and he finishes well. The second goal is a killer, a long ball down the middle of the pitch and we don’t deal with it – that’s a real disappointment for me.
“But the effort and commitment was there. In periods we showed some nice touches and created a couple of opportunities against a very good Lyon team.
“But we just can’t cave in the way we do when we concede a goal. That’s something that we need to rectify very, very quickly going into Sunday’s game.
“I say to all players I’ve coached and managed, when you concede, for five or 10 minutes you all come together and don’t concede again.
“We’ve got to pick ourselves up really, really quickly. I don’t like dismissing games, particularly games that you don’t win, because you want to pick the bones out of them and have the time to work on things on the training ground. But we don’t have that time, so we have to recover quickly and go again on Sunday.
“When you’re not winning games, you do concede sloppy goals and have a little bit of bad fortune.
“So the mentality must be strong and we must have the courage to be strong if we go a goal behind, the courage to stick together.
“We can’t have silly mistakes, we need to keep to the basics and give ourselves a platform in games. If we do concede, then we concede. No team in the land has never conceded a goal – it’s about how you respond to that. You need to stay positive, you need to stay together.
“Confidence is a great word in football and you only get that from winning games. Unfortunately, over the period, we haven’t done that enough. We need to do it very quickly, particularly on Sunday, which I think is a huge game. It’s a huge game for the Club, it’s a huge game for me and I’ve left the players in no uncertain terms that it’s a huge game for them as well.
“I’m sure they’ll respond and I’m sure the Goodison faithful will get behind us all because we need them and we need three points on Sunday.”
NSNO Staff
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