Allardyce defends Schneiderlin substitution

EDIT:

A couple of readers have pointed out correctly that Allardyce is very mistaken here - the last sub (80th min) was made BEFORE Palace scored their goal (83rd min).

How about that then Big Sam?

Despite a comfortable win for Everton over Crystal Palace yesterday, the game was marred late on when a very vocal Goodison Park roundly booed the introduction of midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin with barely ten or so minutes left to go and the score at 3-1.

There were at least two separate times the booing happened - once when the fourth official put up the board saying Idrissa Gueye was coming off for Schneiderlin, and then again when the Frenchman’s name was announced on the tannoy as he trotted on.

The midfielder has not endeared himself to the Everton supporters this season with a series of lackadaisical performances, and his part along with Kevin Mirallas in a training ground exit fiasco did not help in the least.

Freed from the shackles of Schneiderlin slowing him down, Gueye was a revelation as he showed a better range of passes, though playing a depleted Eagles side certainly helped. It appears a good section of the boo-boys were having a go at the player, but certainly there was an aspect of booing the manager Sam Allardyce ‘s decision to go defensive when Palace could be had for the taking on the counter as they tried to reduce the deficit, and Cenk Tosun continues to warm the bench.

After the game, Allardyce defended his choice -

“Surprised, very surprised. I’ve not heard it before. He is a very important part of the squad this year. Lots of players haven’t played to the potential they have.

”I don’t understand it and I never will, booing your own player. The bottom line is that Gana was feeling his hamstring, and his quad and Cuco was feeling his hamstring as well so I asked Wayne who he thought was feeling better.

”Gana was struggling a bit so Morgan went on, which was better for us. Had we brought Cuco off, we didn’t have any defenders left on the bench and at 3-1 they could’ve popped another one in and I think we coped massively well in already losing two defenders today in Mangala and Coleman.”

Fans seem equally divided on whether Schneiderlin deserved to be booed or not, but it’s clear this matter is far from over. The player has not commented in public yet, and there was nothing from him on his Twitter or Instagram accounts.