Richard Dunne holds belief in Everton survival
Ex-Everton defender Richard Dunne has backed his former club to stay in the Premier League; and believes they can do it playing a breakneck style.
The Irishman made 60 league appearances for the Toffees after coming through the academy and as reported by the Liverpool Echo he told BoyleSports he believes the current crop of stars have enough in their locker to get out of trouble.
He also says the atmosphere of Goodison Park gives them a huge advantage, with a raucous home support helping to drag them over the finishing line.
“The result against United was huge at the weekend in terms of belief and stopping the rot. They still have some very tough games but the one thing I think will go in their favour is Goodison Park,” the Sky Sports pundit was quoted as saying (15th April).
“I think having support and intensity will really help them. They need to play football that matches the atmosphere at 100 miles per hour. If they can do that, they’ll have enough as quality wise they have enough.”
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It’s an old adage in football that teams should be looking to pick up most of their wins at home, then see what they can scrap for on the road.
Everton seem to have taken that too literally this season, picking up the sole away victory at Brighton back in August and putting in some pathetic displays on their travels since.
In that sense Dunne is right that Everton need to be picking up points at Goodison, but expecting a team so low on confidence and in a relegation dogfight to play free-flowing football might be a little too ambitious.
The 42-year-old previously made the bold claim that Frank Lampard can get Everton playing like Barcelona, and whilst that seems wildly premature, he’s probably right that harnessing the energy of Evertonians is their current best asset.
Whatever the case Everton will be happy to slam the door shut on this season and try piece together the mess they’ve made in the summer.
In other Everton news, Lampard is set to be backed in the transfer market if he can secure survival.
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