Everton have shown signs of being a little sterner at the back this season.
Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson in action with Everton’s Phil Jagielka
Everton captain Phil Jagielka feels that improvements have been made to the side’s back line this season, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The Toffees have acquired Ashley Williams from Swansea City to help stop the defence from leaking goals like they did last season but Jageilka feels that defensive positioning has a lot to do with things tightening up at the back.
He’s quoted in the Liverpool Echo, saying: “Game to game it slightly differs but in terms of starting positions, the full-backs are nowhere near as high as they would have been, when we have got the ball.
Everton’s Phil Jagielka in action with Sunderland’s Wahbi Khazri
“I feel like we are, probably, in better defensive positions to defend.
“If you look at the games, we’ve not kept as many clean sheets as we would like but if you look at some of the goals we have conceded, we have been a little unfortunate.
“We’ve not given our opponents that many opportunities, bar the Bournemouth game in the first-half which was our worst defensive display as a unit but the second-half was a little bit different, they had something to hold on to, we were more aggressive and how we want to be.”
Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas celebrates scoring their first goal
They have managed to keep two clean sheets in the Premier League so far this season, and haven’t conceded more than one goal in any league game.
One of the criticisms of Roberto Martinez’s side was that they were way too open at the back, allowing for opponents to capitalise on an exposed defence – even if they were finding the net with regularity in the final third during large parts of last season.
Ronald Koeman has his side much more solid and harder to play against. Though there have been one or two occasions when the side has looked a bit below par, they don’t look as if they will concede many goals, whereas last season it seemed an inevitability.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman
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