Everton Defender Michael Keane Admits He Needs 'More Consistency' After Win Over Crystal Palace

Everton defender Michael Keane has admitted that he needs to find "more consistency" after Saturday's 3-1 win over Crystal Palace.

The 25-year-old impressed against the Eagles and there has been a notable improvement in his performances of late after a difficult beginning to life on Merseyside.

But he has stressed the importance of maintaining a steady run of form after the disappointment of last week's heavy defeat against Arsenal.

"My confidence is always growing,” Keane told evertontv. “It took a dent last week [following the Arsenal match]. I think that happened to the whole team. I need to find more consistency and play like that week in, week out. 

“I know that and will be doing everything I can to achieve that. I was happy with how it went against Palace. I thought we were really solid as a team, there was a lot of communication [across the pitch], and I was really pleased.

“I thought I did well. I enjoy the battles. I knew there would be a lot of aerial balls against Benteke and the new guy [6ft 4in Palace debutant forward Alexander Sorloth] and I worked on that in training. I enjoy games like that, they suit me and I felt I played well."

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He added: “It was important we bounced back after last weekend’s result. We were disappointed for everyone who travelled down and all the fans in general. We were not good enough. We wanted to put that right and we did that, especially in the second half. We came out of the blocks well and got ourselves 3-0 up.

“We wanted to make it easier for ourselves than we did against Leicester. We were disappointed to concede the goal, because we wanted a clean sheet. But it was a good win in the end.

“We felt comfortable in the first half without creating too much. But when you get the first goal it always lifts the pressure a bit. That helped the lads relax and we kicked on from there.”