Seamus Coleman is refusing to read too much in Everton's pre-season performances just yet - although he did admit the display against Rennes “wasn't good enough”.
The Blues' preparations lurched to a second defeat in a matter of days as they lost 4-1 against Rennes yesterday following the 3-0 reverse at Blackburn Rovers less than 48 hours earlier.
Coleman says the onus is on the players to put Marco Silva's ideas into practice ahead of the opening game of the campaign against Wolves, on August 11, and so he was left disappointed by what they produced in France.
But the 29-year-old insists he remains “excited” about this season under Silva and is adamant it's too early to be drawing too many conclusions about the way the team have performed thus far.
“I don't think we should get carried away too early with negativity or whatever,” Coleman said.
“It's pre-season, he's getting to know us and we're getting to know the manager and I have to say that training has been great, his ideas have been good but we haven't taken that onto the pitch.
“Sometimes we need to look at the players, it always seems to be managers nowadays, but we need to look at ourselves and that wasn't good enough but we can't get carried away with too much negativity, it's still early days.
“I'm sure the manager will be busy, possibly, in the next couple of weeks to get his own type of players in and we need to make sure us lads who are out there, and in training, do all we can to impress him.
Richarlison (L) vies for the ball with Ludovic Baal (C) during a friendly football match between Rennes and Everton on July 28, 2018, in Vitre, western France.
Richarlison (L) vies for the ball with Ludovic Baal (C) during a friendly football match between Rennes and Everton on July 28, 2018, in Vitre, western France. (Image: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP/Getty Images)
“But we're competitors at the end of the day so it was massively disappointing to lose 4-1 like that.”
He added: “I thought we did create a couple of things but I felt that when we gave it away, one or two passes and they were in on our goal. He wants us to win the ball back quicker and we didn't take that onto the pitch and it's something we need to look at.
“It's disappointing, we're not hiding away from it and nobody is making excuses because you don't want to be losing games in pre-season but we've got to be a little bit calm and take a step back and realise the Wolves game is all important.”
Everton went 2-0 down against Rennes but a goal from new-boy Richarlison halved the deficit.
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However, the Ligue 1 side scored twice more after the break to leave the Blues with just one win from six friendly games.
Asked what the biggest change Silva was trying to implement, Coleman said: “Togetherness, a compact team, and everyone doing their job for the team.
“That's what Everton is all about, we can't carry anyone, we're not in the top four, we need to fight every game – home and away – so we need to make sure we're all together, we all need to understand wherever we've came from we're at Everton now and we need to work hard.
“The manager sees that and he is big on us being together on the pitch. Look, I'm excited for the season ahead and fingers crossed we can get a few fresh faces in because we need that competition for places.”
Seamus not worried.
