‘Some of that at the end was horrendous’: Conor Coady doesn’t hold back after Bournemouth defeat
Everton defender Conor Coady has urged his teammates to take “a hard look in the mirror” after their 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.
The loss extended a bad run for Everton, who have now lost six of their last eight games in all competitions, including a 4-1 defeat to yesterday’s opponents on Tuesday, that saw the Toffies dumped out of the EFL Cup.
Coady’s side now sit 17th in the Premier League, and the central defender did not hold back in his assessment of his team’s performance.
“Some of that at the end was horrendous.
“Personal pride and standard is what we have to set in training, it is nothing to do with the manager or staff, we don’t have them at the minute.”
Coady made England manager Gareth Southgate’s squad for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, and sees the break from Premier League football as an opportunity for Everton to re-set.
“We need to look at ourselves long and hard going into the break now.
“It was shocking, nowhere near good enough. We have to be better in the second half of the season, we have to do better. We have had a long chat about what we need to do.
“This is Everton Football Club. We are not representing that at the minute. There is a lot of looking at ourselves to do, I don’t know what it is.
“The only good thing that has come out of this is the second half of the season. We have a lot of learning to do.”
With the win, Bournemouth leapfrogged their opponents in the table, jumping to 13th going into the unusual winter break.
Meanwhile, Everton sit just three points ahead of 18th placed Nottingham Forest, putting them right in the mix for a relegation scrap if results do not improve.
Toffies’ fans would have hoped to avoid that situation after narrowly missing the drop last season after Frank Lampard came in for previous manager Rafael Benitez.
This loss piles the pressure on the Everton manager, who has acknowledged the response from the fans.
“As much as the fans are for us, with the welcomes they gave us last year and the plaudits they gave us after the Crystal Palace game, you have to accept that they have a right to voice their opinion. And they have travelled down to Bournemouth to do that.
“We were probably favourites to go down at the start of this season. There was a reason why we ended up where we did last season. So there is no right to be given anything in the Premier League. It doesn’t matter about your history; you have to earn it.”
