Joleon Lescottt in ‘going down’ comment ahead of Leicester vs …
Old boy Joleon Lescott has branded Everton’s Monday night clash at relegation rivals Leicester City as the Liverpool club’s “biggest game” in recent history.
The midweek round of fixtures saw the Foxes[1] pick up a point at Leeds, following their recent win over Wolves, but Dean Smith’s side still slipped back into the bottom three due to results elsewhere. Everton, meanwhile, suffered a 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle on Thursday in which they conceded three goals in nine minutes.
City are now preparing for a crunch game with the Toffees at the King Power Stadium on Monday (8pm kick-off), with both sides sitting in the bottom three and separated by a point. Looking ahead to what is at stake for his old club, pundit and former Everton defender Joleon Lescott bemoaned their poor away record – they have won just once away from Goodison Park this season.
READ: Sean Dyche fires ‘not good enough’ blast at Everton players ahead of Leicester City[2]
READ: ‘Quite young’ Martin O’Neill makes Leicester City return admission[3]
“That is the biggest game in the recent history of the club. I honestly believe whoever loses that game is going down,” Lescott said after the Newcastle defeat. “(Everton) can’t rely on their home form now, they have to win away. They have to perform.
“(Everton manager Sean Dyche) spoke about effort, but it has to be more than just effort, there has to be some quality, some belief,” he continued. “They have to take a look at their fixtures and see they can’t rely on potentially getting something against Man City at home. It’s not going to be enough, they need to find a way of getting points away from home.”
Combined with their struggles away from home, Everton have also scored the fewest goals in the league this term (26). Michael Owen assessed the club’s problems in front of goal and summed up his thoughts on the club’s chances of survival.
“If you offered Sean Dyche the chance of winning at home to Bournemouth [on May 28, the final day of the season] to stay up, he’d snap your hand off. I actually think it could come down to that,” Owen said.
“Everyone knows they don’t score enough goals. They’re set up to defend. They shouldn’t be conceding four goals in a game because the midfield three that started out are all pretty defensive. The back four, the full-backs aren’t bombing on, even their wide players put a shift in defensively.
“It must be very difficult to be a centre-forward in this team. There’s no wonder why they don’t score many goals because they are set up to not concede, which is the disappointing thing [against Newcastle] because they play a defensive team and still concede four. That’s a bit of a worry.”
What are your predictions for the Everton clash? Tell us in the comments section…[4]
References
- ^ Foxes (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Sean Dyche fires ‘not good enough’ blast at Everton players ahead of Leicester City (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ ‘Quite young’ Martin O’Neill makes Leicester City return admission (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ comments section… (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)