DCL caps initial joy for Rafa
BENITEZ: I’M A FIGHTER!
RAFA BENITEZ vowed that his Everton teams will always show fight, after kicking off the season with a come-from-behind win over Southampton.
Trailing at half-time to an Adam Armstrong goal, the Toffees roared back to seal a victory courtesy of strikes from Richarlison, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Dominic Calvertlewin.
And, though he wished to play down his own role in that success, Benitez insisted that Toffees fans can expect nothing less than 100-percent commitment during his tenure at Goodison Park.
Benitez (below) said: “It’s nothing to do with me, it’s more about the players and the fans.
“After so many months without fans, I think the players appreciate the support, and I think the fans appreciate the players’ commitment.
“And the manager? The majority of them know I like to fight, I like to compete, and I did it today – and I will do it in all my time here.
“I am someone who likes to do his job properly and likes to win, and then if you have the connection with the fans the way that we had today I’m really happy with that.”
There were few signs of any discontent among supporters at the start of proceedings as they created a white-hot atmosphere that inspired Everton to a bright opening.
Allan forced a save from Alex Mccarthy in the visitors’ goal with a low shot before Calvert-lewin headed just over after promising link-up play by Seamus Coleman and Demarai Gray down the right.
And when Calvert-lewin came within inches of poking home a low Richarlison cross, it seemed inevitable that Everton would be celebrating their opening goal soon.
Instead, it was their opponents who went ahead, Che Adams capitalising on hesitancy from Michael Keane to pinch the ball and play in Armstrong for an unerring finish into the top corner.
Frustration began to set in quickly for the Toffees, with Richarlison booked for an unconvincing dive past Oriol Romeu’s legs on the halfhour mark.
And before the break it was Southampton who went the closest to grabbing the next goal, the lively Armstrong thrashing a shot at Jordan Pickford from a tight angle.
Everton fans might prefer to forget, but Benitez famously has previous for masterminding second-half comebacks.
He was asked to repeat the trick at Goodison yesterday and said of his changes: “The first thing was giving them confidence and trying to adapt two or three things – we changed the position of the centre-backs, we changed the position of Richarlison and Gray.
“So, in the end we could link a little bit better, we could be a threat in wide areas, we were stronger in defence.
“These changes plus the support of the fans behind pushing the players,
and the result is that we play with character, we play with the intensity that we were looking for in the first half.”
It took just two minutes for the half-time tweaks to tell, the equaliser coming after the Saints thought they had done enough to clear a corner delivery.
But Andros Townsend was on hand to head the ball back into the danger zone where Richarlison was lurking in space to score with a simple close-range finish. That goal
inevitably changed the mood for the better, restoring Goodison Park’s noise levels to the highs of the opening exchanges.
However, it still required the intervention of a
Benitez substitute to really make it pay, Alex Iwobi laying the ball off to Doucoure to unleash a powerful finish into the top corner.
And a reinvigorated Everton wrapped it up five minutes later when Calvert-lewin bravely stooped low to head in Richarlison’s cross despite Mccarthy getting a hand to it.
It was an accomplished finish from Calvertlewin, who will be hoping to improve on his 16 Premier League goals last season.
Unsurprisingly, Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was left lamenting his side’s poor second-half collapse – and quick to hail the impact of the returning fans.
He said: “It’s very disappointing because we had a really good start to this game.
“How we concede the goal is too easy and then everything is lively in the stadium with a full crowd.”
The first thing was giving the players confidence... and having the fans push gives us character