Allardyce hails Everton’s ‘stand-in’ defensive warriors (including Cuco)
Since his arrival Sam Allardyce has bemoaned the amount of injuries Everton have, but this week, following his team’s dogged performance at Anfield to earn a fighting draw, the Everton boss has praised his defensive ‘stand-in’ players.
Fledgling right back Jonjoe Kenny has caught many an Evertonian eye in recent weeks and Allardyce, a defensive connoisseur himself, hasn’t failed to be impressed by the youngsters performances…
“Jonjoe’s been a huge bonus for us filling in that position, he’s proved that he belongs at Premier League level before I came in and he’s proven that to me in my short time because he doesn’t look out of place.”
“It (right back in the Premier League) looks like it’s the place he’s comfortable in and for a young man to play at this level, under these pressures and look comfortable with it, is fantastic to him and to the club for bringing him through the Academy.”
Fortunately for the young Evertonian and all of us blues who’ve been delighted with his performances and passion for shirt, the Kirkdale lad is set to be rewarded with a new long-term contract in the coming weeks.
Perhaps more of a surprise is Sam Allardyce’s praise for Cuco Martina.
Whereas you expect blues to wish well of their own, such as Jonjoe Kenny, the free signing of a 27 year old Curucao international, deemed not good enough for Southampton, was hardly met with much excitement among Evertonians.
Yet, despite that and a raft of poor to mediocre performances to date, Allardyce saw fit to praise Martina prior to the Newcastle encounter on Wednesday evening…
“I have to mention the qualities of Cuco Martina’s defending.”
“Unfortunately, the one time Salah got away from him, he produced a great finish (to put Liverpool ahead). He was unfortunate that he lost his balance at the wrong time and Salah took full advantage of that, but the rest of the time he kept him extremely quiet.”
“He (Salah) only popped up for a header on the far side (early in the second half) when Jonjoe should’ve been a bit more aware of where he was and could’ve done better to get a challenge in, but Cuco’s defensive qualities were very good against the biggest player Liverpool have got at the minute.”
I know Martina does get a lot of stick, but we should remember his playing out of position and believe it or not, his statistics were strong against Liverpool as he finished with the most tackles, most interceptions and the 2nd most clearances on the day from any blue shirt.
Another recent addition to the Everton side, Mason Holgate has himself spoken in glowing terms of Sam Allardyce and his impact…
“We haven’t lost since he (Allardyce) came in, we’ve been a lot more solid as a team and I think that all stems from the gaffer’s positive impact on us.
“We’re clear in what we are doing. We’ve not spent loads of time on the training pitch due to the run of games we’ve had – but once we are out there, no-one is left in any doubt about what their job is.”
Allardyce summed it up nicely when he said “We’ve got players who’ve come in and done a very, very good job.”
I personally think it’s easy to forget in amongst the emotions of the derby and everything that goes with it, we went to Anfield with arguably just Jordan Pickford who’d get into our first choice defensive unit and limited them to a handful of chances and just 3 attempts on target.
Hopefully things will go from strength to strength.
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