Ross Barkley was arguably Everton’s best player in their most recent match.
Ronald Koeman has told the Liverpool Echo that he felt Ross Barkley played too defensively in the first-half of Everton’s match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Barkley was deployed as Everton’s main creator at White Hart Lane, and his performance caught the eye.
Although Everton fell to a 3-2 defeat at Tottenham, Barkley was in excellent form throughout the contest.
And even though Koeman did credit Barkley’s display, he felt that the England international should have been positioned higher up the pitch in the first 45 minutes.
“I think in the second half he was really important,” he said. “He was strong on the ball and he had some good passes.
“I think in the first half he needed to support Romelu more but we made some mistakes with our final balls and their high defensive line left space but we needed good balls.
“But overall I think he played on a really high level today and he showed again today that he is on a good direction as a football player for us.”
Everton played fairly defensively against Tottenham, and at times they struggled to get forward.
Tottenham managed to take a 2-0 lead before Everton really started to show their attacking qualities.
Romelu Lukaku got the Toffees back into the match, but Spurs saw the game out.
Despite the defeat, Everton have still been in very good form over 2017 to date – and currently sit in seventh place in the Premier League table.
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