Everton Manager David Unsworth Urges Team to Stick Together Following Europa League Elimination

Toffees boss David Unsworth has told his players to stick together following their 3-0 defeat against Lyon tonight, which has sent them crashing out of Europe with only four games played.

Speaking after the match, Unsworth was proud of his teams display for the majority of the match, but was overall disappointed with the outcome.

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“I’m really disappointed with the result. For nearly 70 minutes we were nearly perfect with our game plan and created a couple of opportunities that we could and should have scored," he said, as quoted by the Guardian.

"To concede the first goal was really disappointing, a lucky ricochet in the middle of the park gets the lad in and he finishes well. The second goal is a killer, a long ball down the middle of the pitch and we don’t deal with it - that’s a real disappointment for me.

“But the effort and commitment was there. In periods we showed some nice touches and created a couple of opportunities against a very good Lyon team. But we just can’t cave in the way we do when we concede a goal. That’s something that we need to rectify very, very quickly, going into Sunday’s game [against Watford]."

Everton have lost all of their last five competitive games, but Unsworth remains positive and insists that his team must stay strong despite the poor results.

"When you’re not winning games, you do concede sloppy goals and have a little bit of bad fortune,” he added. “So the mentality must be strong and we must have the courage to be strong if we go a goal behind, the courage to stick together.

“We can’t have silly mistakes, we need to keep to the basics and give ourselves a platform in games. If we do concede, then we concede - no team in the land has never conceded a goal, it’s about how you respond to that."

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Ahead of the match against Watford on Sunday, the manager is hoping that his team can find their confidence and show their fans what they are truly capable of. 

“Confidence is a great word in football and you only get that from winning games. Unfortunately, over the period, we haven’t done that enough. We need to do it very quickly, particularly on Sunday, which I think is a huge game."

“I’m sure they’ll respond and I’m sure the Goodison faithful will get behind us all because we need them and we need three points on Sunday.”

The Merseyside club will be hoping to bounce back at the weekend in their crucial Premier League fixture against Watford at Goodison Park. A win at home could reignite a season that promised so much but has provided so little.