Boa Morte looking for perfection at Everton

Everton recently replaced long-time Marco Silva assistant Joao Pedro Sousa with former Premier League player Luis Boa Morte. Sousa took over the reins at newly-promoted Famalicão as their manager, and Boa Morte came in at Finch Farm bringing fourteen years of Premier League playing experience, having turned out for Arsenal, Southampton, Fulham and West Ham United in that time.

Speaking to evertontv, the 41-year-old spoke about his love for the game and how that carries into his coaching method.

“I am an intense coach, I live for football and I am very passionate about what I do. You have a lot of responsibility in your hands as a coach.

“The players always need to understand the message; what the coaching team wants, what we are looking for and the way we want to play.

”It is important to be on top of them and… when you are looking for something, to explain and make sure they understand.

“Only like that, can we have a great union and work together. I know no one is perfect, but it is important that we look for perfection.”

The winger was capped 28 times for Portugal, once the 41-year-old hung up his boots he joined Silva at Sporting Lisbon for the 2014-15 season managing the Under-19 squad. Since then Boa Morte worked as a scout for the Gunners before managing third division Portuguese club Sintrense, then taking over the Under-23 side at Portimonense. Since January this year he’s been assistant coach at Maccabi Haifa in Israel.

Boa Morte also spoke about his previous experiences against the Blues and is quite familiar with Goodison Park.

“I played against Everton so many times and you have to understand how ambitious the supporters are – how much they live for the Club.

“It was not hard for me to say ‘yes’ when I had the chance to come here. The supporters are so passionate about the Club and want their team to play a good style of football.

“Goodison Park was such a tough ground to come and play. You find difficult grounds to go to down the years – and I always said, ‘Okay, this is really, really tough, to play at Everton’.

“Last season they did well and teams found it hard to come to Goodison Park… and now we need to carry on the good work.”

The Blues ended last season on a good run and Boa Morte wants to continue that into the new season.

“The boss has been getting Everton playing good football. It is exciting to be back in England and working at such a big club.

“I was pleased [when I heard about the opportunity]. It has always been my main goal to return to the Premier League.

“Marco gave me the chance to come to Everton, so I thank him for this opportunity and I am looking forward to starting work.”