Mirallas Disappointed with Draw

 

Kevin Mirallas was disappointed with the Everton performance in the away draw with West Brom last night and says that the club will not realise their Champions League dream if they keep drawing games against teams they should be beating.

Everton drew 1-1 with West Brom at the Hawthorns with Mirallas scoring just before half-time and Diego Lugano equalising for the home team late on in the second half – the chance to go fourth above Liverpool gone to waste.

Everton never reached the levels that we have become accustomed to under Roberto Martinez and could have easily have lost the game after the hosts had a flurry of late chances. Although the game could have been won by Everton in the last few minutes with Sylvain Distin’s goal being ruled offside.

Everton have lost the fewest games in the Premier League this season with only two defeats but we have combined this hard-to-beat mentality with nine draws – six of these against teams in the bottom half of the table, including twice against West Brom.

The Belgian believes that they cannot afford to drop points from a winning position again if they are to stay in touch with the European battle.

Mirallas said: “We were so disappointed with this one. If we’d beaten West Brom at Goodison earlier in the season, then you would maybe take this as a good point but we didn’t. It was a difficult game.

“We can’t afford to do that again. The little problem for us this season has been a few too many draws.

“In the first half we played very well and created a few good chances. But in the second half we had to defend a lot more and dropped deeper. It was tough.”

The poor second half display was enlightened by the introduction of new signing and our new number seven Aiden McGeady, but overall the team were unhappy with their performance.

“We need to look at that second half and learn because it’s not good for the future.

“Maybe we got a bit carried away after scoring so close to half-time and thought we would win for sure.

“It was a very frustrating dressing room which is normal because we wanted to win and knew how important it was.

Everton can get back to winning ways with the FA Cup tie against Stevenage at the weekend, but Mirallas says they will not underestimate their opponents
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“We need to have a good game against Stevenage in the Cup now, which won’t be easy because we are away,” he said.
During the game we saw the Belgian switched infield to play in the number 10 role and he feels that this is his best position from which he can support his fellow Belgian Romelu Lukaku.

“For me I think the second striker is my best positions,” he said. “Sometimes I’ve been played right or left and it’s not a problem but I think I made a good impression.

“I feel free in that role and I have a good rapport with Romelu from the national team too so it’s good for Everton.

“The thing is that Ross has been playing really well in that number 10 role. Ultimately it’s not important for me really as long as I play well wherever the manager asks me.”