Allardyce bullish about Everton tactics: “What was wrong with our style?”

The relationship between the Everton fanbase and manager Sam Allardyce has been rocky for some time now, and things appeared to come to a head with the supporters survey last week. Last night was the first game since the now-infamous email was sent out by the club, and despite Allardyce’s protestations in the pre-game buildup that chairman Bill Kenwright had apologized to him, the fans’ message was loud and clear to all, including majority owner Farhad Moshiri who was at the game.

While Everton actually looked half-decent for long periods of the game, they still lacked attacking invention especially in the final third of the pitch and were only able to muster one shot on goal. Luckily, that was the one that made all the difference in a narrow 1-0 win over Newcastle last night.

After the game Big Sam insisted on Sky Sports that the Blues deserved to win -

“Apart from the last 10 minutes we dominated the game and there was only going to be one winner.

“What we didn’t do is get the second goal and that put us under a little bit of pressure in the last five minutes but we defended very well.

“It’s another three points at home again, and moving forward trying to get the supporters behind the players here.”

When asked if he was starting to win over some of the fans with an away game at Huddersfield coming up -

“If we lose next week they won’t be there will they? It will be the same again.

“We’ll all be rubbish if we lose next week but if we win we’ll be OK. Let’s keep winning then so we don’t get the criticism. But as a manager, when does every fan like the manager?

“We (have to) keep winning and keep getting better and better. I’m working with a squad of players that I’ve inherited and all the staff behind the scenes are striving to make them better.”

Big Sam asked for the fans to get behind him -

“I think eighth in the league compared to fifth from bottom shows we are getting them better.

“The Everton fans demand that the club finishes higher and deliver more consistent results - I accept all that. Don’t you think I want the same? Yes I do.

“If we all work together, all stick together, slowly but surely we’ll get there.”

As far as delivering results with the style expected of the School of Science -

“What was wrong with our style today? (We’ve) completely dominated the game and out-passed the opposition in the opposition’s half.

“We found it very difficult to break them down as obviously their negative tactic of dropping ten players in their own half.

“You have to be patient, we were patient but you couldn’t knock our football. You could knock passes going astray but in all fairness you can’t really blame me for that one, can you? I’m not out there passing the ball, the lads do.

“Some of our passing went astray but obviously that’s something that will get better. I thought overall the lads did terrific today.

“Yes there were some mistakes, but that’s been apparent since the day I got here. We try and eliminate those mistakes every week and get better and better.”