Jagielka: We are missing a striker to get us a goal

Everton skipper Phil Jagielka has said that his side are missing a clinical striker at the moment due to injuries to Arouna Kone, Romelu Lukaku and Lacina Traore not quite being fully fit.

Everton played Steven Naismith in a forward role and the blonde Scot never got much service in a 1-0 defeat to Spurs are White Hart Lane.

Jagielka said “We’re struggling a little bit at the moment. Lacina is not quite right yet and it’s difficult because although we played some good stuff we were perhaps missing that fox in the box or target man to get us the goal. It’s frustrating and at the least we should probably have kept a clean sheet and come away with 0-0 but we didn’t.

“It’s going to be a little bit harder for us now, there are other teams in the mix for fourth.

“If we’d beat Spurs we’d have pushed on a little bit, but there’s still 13 games left and a lot of points to play for.

“A lot of teams are trying to get as many points as they can for one reason or another and we’ve got a lot of hard games too. We’ve got a tough one coming up against Palace.”

Speaking about Adebayors winner, Jagielka believes that Everton should have had a foul just before the Spurs foul but says that the lanky Spurs striker did well to put it away.

“We had the better chances on the day but we were so frustrated with the goal,” said Jagielka. “It looks as if Ossie was fouled before it and then everything happened so quickly and it was a case of was he or wasn’t he onside?

“It was a great finish though and you can’t take that away from Adebyaor. We didn’t take our own chances and we were punished for it.”

Jagielka was glad to have on-loan Spaniard Gerard Deulofeu back from injury even though he didn’t have much impact on the game.

“Gerry has been looking good in training but it’s difficult to come into a game when you’ve been out for a while,” said Jagielka.

“Maybe the time he had will benefit him in the weeks ahead and he’ll be a game changer for us in his next game.

“I’m just so disappointed to have lost. We needed to get at least a draw because us and Spurs are competing for fourth. The next week will be very important now and we need to keep our confidence going, play like we did in the first half, and score the goals when we get the chances.”

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