What a load of rubbish, blasts furious Koeman
EVERTON manager Ronald Koeman gave his players a public dressing down following this dire display.
No goals. Three shots on target — all from West Ham, although two of those could hardly be classed in that category. A point a piece but, to be honest, neither side deserved even that.
‘I took off Tom Davies and Idrissa Gueye at half-time, I felt sorry for them because if I could have changed 10 players then I would have,’ said Koeman.
‘I’m disappointed, it was far away from our level in every aspect of football.
‘I don’t know why we were [so bad]. We didn’t bring intensity to the game, we took too much time on the ball and when you start like we did it’s hard to start again. But I’m not worried. It’s possible, it’s football. They are humans.’
West Ham were marginally the better team and Slaven Bilic will take some comfort from his side’s performance — at least they tried to win this game.
‘ We didn’t create bigg chances but deserved to win t he game,’ said Bilic. ‘We limited them to not creating a single chance over 90 minutes and we know what they are capable of. Wee showed effort and deterrmination. I can’t ask for anymore. We should be proud.’ d’
That is far more than can be said for Everton, their display as lacklustre, particularly in attack, as it gets. They deserved Koeman’s stinging criticism.
Both managers dropped their first-choice goalkeepers, Adrian replacing Darren Randolph for the Hammers, while Maarten Steklen- b burg took Joel Robles’ place between the E Everton posts. The way Adrian dealt w with a routine throw in into his path from Edimilson Fernandes in the 15th minu minute, comically falling bba ck wardskda she tried to boot clear merely underlined the necessity for West Ham to sign a new shot-stopper this summer. The fact the Spanish goalkeeper’s calamitous moment was the most entertaining event of the first-half tells you all you need to know. West Ham were the more threatening during a drab opening 45 minutes but that is not saying much. Their best chance arrived inside the 36th minute when James Colli ns’ header f r om Manuel Lanzini’s cross flew just wide.
Bilic would have been the happier boss going in at half-time, though neither manager would have been doing cartwheels.
Ross Barkley took up some promising positions for Everton but failed to deliver, while the less said about Romelu Lukaku’s performance the better.
At least pop star Pixie Lott was on hand to perform her latest single on the pitch at half-time. But even that failed to muster anything more than a ripple of excitement from supporters.
They needed a second-half pickme- up. Koeman thought so too, making a double substitution at half time with Gareth Barry and Ademola Lookman coming on for Davies and Gueye in a bid to spark his team into action.
It didn’t work, however, as West Ham remained the more threatening. Fernandes, after a rampaging run down the right, shot when he should have passed before Arthur Masuaku’s follow-up hit Phil Jagielka square the face after 54 minutes. Two minutes later Fernandes fired carelessly over from 20 yards when finding a pass was the more logical option. Bilic introduced Diafra Sakho for the final 28 minutes in a bid to turn his team’s dominance into a winner.
This was entirely disappointing from the Toffees, though Lookman did add some verve to their attacks, which were few and far between.
Lanzini made a a dazzling run down t he l eft f l ank t hat l eft Barkley trailing in his wake but his finish from 20 yards was easily gathered by Steklenburg. Then Lookman fired just over the bar from 22 yards.
At least Koeman’s men threw some caution to the wind in the final 10 minutes, a number of wicked deliveries into the box from Leighton Baines leaving the Hammers defence in somewhat of a panic. But it was all too little, much too little, too late.
We have indeed had some golden moments here in the Olympic Stadium. This was not one of them.