Koeman: It’s been tough for Barkley
He’ll learn from his mistakes — Koeman
EVERTON’S Ross Barkley justified manager Ronald Koeman’s decision to pick him for yesterday’s 3-1 win against Burnley after a turbulent week that started with him being punched in a Liverpool bar.
Barkley, 23, made two goal-line clearances and helped put Everton 2-1 ahead, even though his deflected strike eventually went down as a Ben Mee own goal.
He was booked for hugging Everton fans after the goal but Koeman said: ‘I could understand the celebration because what happened last week had a really big impact for him.’
Everton banned The Sun from Goodison after an inflammatory column by Kelvin MacKenzie about Barkley.
EVERTON 3 Jagielka 49, Mee og 71, Lukaku 74 BURNLEY 1 Vokes pen 52
IF EVER a player felt justified taking a yellow card for celebrating a goal, it was Ross Barkley in an emotional end to a turbulent week.
Barkley has been front-page fodder after being punched in a Liverpool bar and then compared to a gorilla in The Sun, an insult that has got both the columnist, Kelvin MacKenzie, and paper in trouble.
All that hurt and anger in Barkley poured out when his 71st-minute strike flashed past Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton, via a couple of deflections, to put Everton 2-1 up.
Pumped up with adrenaline, he stood on top of the advertising hoardings to face diehard fans at the famed Gwladys Street End, saluting them before bending down to receive a mass of hugs.
When referee Mark Clattenburg booked him as he returned to the halfway line, he pointedly beat the Everton badge on his chest.
When Barkley was substituted near the end, the Goodison crowd gave their 23-year-old local hero a heartfelt standing ovation, on a day when the atmosphere was tinged with sadness at the 28th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, an event that always unites this city.
Everton boss Ronald Koeman said: ‘I could understand Barkley’s celebration because what happened last week had a really big impact for him. I didn’t have any doubts about picking him because the best way to forget what happened is to play football. You learn from things that happen. I did some stupid things when I was 19 or 20. If you learn from mistakes, that is good. He is human.
‘He was focused on the football side for the week and for this afternoon. He struggled to adapt to how Burnley played, like a lot of players, but in the second half it was the Everton I like to see.’
By ‘mistakes’, Koeman was referring to the late-night incident when Barkley went out to celebrate last Sunday’s win against Leicester.
The comments from MacKenzie about Barkley, who has a Nigerian grandparent, are a different matter and so angered the club that they released a statement yesterday morning banning The Sun from Goodison Park.
MacKenzie, already detested on Merseyside for The Sun’s coverage of Hillsborough when he was editor, has been suspended by the newspaper.
This looked like a home banker. Everton had a 100 per cent home record in 2017 while Burnley hadn’t won away all season. It turned out that way, Everton moving up to fifth, but not before a struggle.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche said: ‘You don’t want to cry but I thought our performance was good. There wasn’t much in the game.’
Burnley got through the first half with boyhood Everton fan Joey Barton provoking the ire of the crowd with strong challenges on Romelu Lukaku and Morgan Schneiderlin.
At the other end Sam Vokes was foiled by Joel Robles after outpacing Phil Jagielka in one of the Premier League’s slower foot races. An unhappy Koeman hooked Idrissa Gueye at half-time and four minutes later substitute Enner Valencia was involved in the opening goal, flicking on for Jagielka to bundle the ball over the line, his third goal in consecutive games.
Within three minutes, Burnley were level after Robles had a rush of blood to the head and shoved Vokes in the back as the striker was running away from goal.
‘A stupid fault, you can’t take that risk in that position,’ grumbled Koeman, Vokes having levelled from the spot.
Until then, Barkley had been wasteful on the ball, his best moment coming when he got back to head off the line from Michael Keane. But the England midfielder, who only has a year left on his Everton contract, took control after by cutting inside from a Kevin Mirallas pass and letting fly. His shot was on target until it hit Keane, deflected away from goal but then struck Ben Mee to go in. Officially, it will probably be given as an own goal but Barkley deservedly took the plaudits.
Dyche said ruefully: ‘To hit your centre-half so it’s going wide, and then to hit another centre-half, that has to be bad luck.’
Lukaku exploded into life three minutes later to turn Keane and lash into the roof of the net. The Belgian is top of the Premier League golden boot race with 24 goals and is the first Everton player to score in nine consecutive home games since legend Dixie Dean in the 1930s. But the main praise has to go Barkley’s way for making headlines of the right kind.