Captain Coleman commends Everton forwards

Everton beat Southampton 2-1 yesterday in their home opener at Goodison Park, with club veteran Seamus Coleman captaining the side.

After the game, he spoke about how he happy he was fulfilling the role in the absence of club captain Phil Jagielka.

“I have my own standards, with or without the armband, but it is a big honour to captain this Club at any level and I am very proud to do it in the Premier League.

“We wanted to start at home as we mean to go on. The fans were looking forward to the new regime, a new manager and new players, and we needed to put on a show, which I thought we did.

“And more importantly, we got the three points.”

He reserved special praise for the front four that tormented a beleaguered Saints defence all game long, with the visitors picking up five bookings.

“The attacking players linked up brilliantly at times. They were great and very lively in front of goal.

“We are really enjoying having Richarlison in the team for the attacking quality he provides but also for his work ethic.

”But it was not just him. I thought Theo was great, Cenk held the ball up brilliantly and Gylfi always puts in a great shift. They all did really well.”

Coleman is also impressed by Marco Silva’s level of preparation in training, and how that seems to be working out on the pitch. Everton took the lead yesterday with a neat training ground move and showed a range of different moves at setpieces.

“The manager is very detailed and wants to get everything right. We worked on the free-kick during the week and to see it come off on matchday is very rewarding for the coaching staff.

“He wants us pressing, winning the ball back, passing it forward and playing attacking football and I think the fans enjoyed it.

“We did not deserve to be under pressure towards the end and conceding a goal from a set piece was the disappointing thing today, so we definitely need to iron out a few things.

“But we created enough chances to have won comfortably and can be very positive about that performance and result. It was massively important to make sure we got the three points.”

It was close in the end though it really shouldn’t have been after the Blues let the Saints back into the game and spurning some chances to put the game to bed early, but once again an encouraging performance overall.