Jagielka believes Everton fans have every right to boo

PHIL JAGIELKA has branded Everton’s tough start to the season ‘horrific’.

Everton head to Old Trafford this afternoon on the back of successive Premier League defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Tottenham, who romped to a 3-0 win at Goodison Park last weekend.

To make matters worse, a Thursday night trip to Italy ended in another 3-0 thumping by Atalanta in a miserable Europa League group stage opener.

United, and on-fire old boy Romelu Lukaku, are next up but Jagielka thinks that if they do not up their game, the opposition is irrelevant.

‘It’s been a horrific scheduling of the start of the season for us,’ said the 35-year-old. ‘We’ve had tough Premier League games already against Chelsea and Tottenham and next we face United, so it would have been nice to have had a home Europa League game after a dismal performance against Spurs.

‘If we play against United like we have been doing lately it won’t take too much of a standard of player to out-perform us.

‘First and foremost we need to look in the mirror and pull our finger out.’

Everton were booed by their own fans after the sorry defeat by the Italians and Jagielka admitted: ‘I think I’d have done the same. I can more than understand the frustration.’

Meanwhile, under-pressure Toffees boss Ronald Koeman has warned his players to be wary of old boy Lukaku today.

‘We know him really well,’ Koeman said of Lukaku. ‘He’s one of the best strikers.

‘I mentioned several times last season he’s a great finisher. I hope that we know how we have to defend against him.

‘In the box he’s really dangerous, he’s fast, he’s strong.

‘If we defend how we’ve defended in the last few games then maybe it will be his afternoon. I hope that is not the case.’