Steven Naismith unmoved at Everton FA Cup exit, sees potential problems avoided
Everton “undoubtedly have quality players” but they need to perform better, and the FA Cup exit is not an issue says Steven Naismith.
The Toffees were unceremoniously knocked out of the cup 4-0 by Crystal Palace at the weekend (20 March), where new boss Frank Lampard had achieved two of his four wins, but the club’s former forward sees it as a positive to have no distractions from the relegation battle.
While terrible league results have left many pundits decrying the standard of the playing squad at Goodison, the Scot believes there is nothing wrong with the players themselves, just the way they are playing.
The Scottish coach said, via The Independent: “I think there is a few issues.
“A lot of onus will be on the players to dig deep and get the results needed. The Newcastle game showed that, they got the crowd behind them at Goodison, who will be massively important for the rest of the season.
“Undoubtedly they have quality players but it is getting the best out of them.
“The players need to take a lot of responsibility from now to the end of the summer.”
On the cup loss being a problem he said: “No, because the main priority is to get yourself safe and start putting a run of results in the league together.
“And the further you go down an FA Cup route can cause a few problems. It is great being in the latter stages of a cup but the priority for Everton is to get safe and rebuild.”
Blasé
The 35-year-old is admirably unconcerned by the situation at the club.
In many ways it would be nice if some of that calm and confidence could rub off on the current squad.
The defence in particular seem to be a bag of nerves that crumble as soon as they go behind.
Frank Lampard has managed just two wins in the league since his January arrival, and has found getting the best out of his players a struggle.
Naismith is right that the players need to dig deep, but really they need to have been doing that quite often already.
In some ways he is right about the cup run as well, since it would be fanciful to suggest they had a chance at winning it in this form.
If a heavy defeat was on the cards at some point anyway, it probably was best to get it out of the way, however deflating the trip to South London was.
In other Everton news, a major report in the last 24 hours has thrown an unwelcome spotlight on the financial mess at the club.
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