Lookman impresses Koeman, could start for Everton

It appears that new signing Ademola Lookman has made enough of an impression on the Everton manager that he could be handed his first start sooner than later. In an interview with The Guardian, Ronald Koeman said that the teenager has caught his eye during training.

“I think we will be keeping him fairly close to the first team. I am really impressed by the young boy and what he is showing us. Not just in the last couple of minutes against Manchester City, although that was a big moment for the boy and everybody else because it made the result that bit more special, but you can tell from his attitude and his quality in the training sessions that he can be a really top player.”

Lookman was Everton’s first signing of the January transfer window, with the club completing his signing for £10m from Charlton Athletic. He scored last Sunday on his debut in the waning minutes of a 4-0 win over City.

“He came from a lower league team, and with all due respect, you think he might take a bit of time to get used to working at a higher intensity.

“But even with his age and without any experience of the Premier League he showed his quality straight away. You could tell by the reaction of the rest of the players. Footballers only take a day or two to work out whether a new signing is any good or not, they know almost straight away, and they saw a player working at their own intensity.

“I am not saying that Ademola doesn’t have anything to learn, but he is starting from a good position. It was already a big compliment to him that he was part of the squad last weekend, ahead of several other players with more experience, and based on what we have already seen I would not be afraid to give him a start.”

Koeman went on to say that despite the big win last weekend, it was important for his side to show some consistency and humility this weekend.

“If you win 4-0 it is a big result, and the players enjoy training that little bit more in the week that follows, but we can’t keep celebrating one game because in football you always have to prepare for the next one. That applies to the young players especially.”

That last line was more in reference to local lad Tom Davies who also scored a stunning maiden Everton goal last weekend to top off an excellent all-round performance.

“Tom needs to learn to deal with that attention but we will help him. He is a young player who took his chance in the first team, he is entitled to be happy about that, but if he starts to think he is the big man at Everton we will do something to help him keep his two feet on the ground.

“Just this week we have been showing him clips of some of the things he could have done better against City, just so he knows it wasn’t quite a perfect performance, but he is a good boy and a really hard working player. We are not expecting him to lose focus or start to get sloppy.”