Season › 2015-16 › News Deulofeu's case for defence Lyndon Lloyd , 27 January, 10comments | Jump to most recent Gerard Deulofeu says that this Everton team can beat anyone but they need to show more passion and defend better as a team. The Spain U21 international spoke to the media ahead of tonight's all-important Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester City where the Toffees can advance to a Wembley date with local rivals Liverpool. The build-up to the game has been overshadowed by injuries to both Muhamed Besic and Kevin Mirallas as well as Sunday's dismal home defeat to Swansea that effectively ended the pretence of a tilt at Champions League qualification this season. Ending the club's 21-year trophy drought would be ample compensation, however, and Deulofeu 's excitement at the prospect of playing in the national stadium in a showpiece final next month comes through in his comments. "My family will definitely come if we get there," he said. "Please, I hope the dogs can come too! I’ll sign for them! In Spain we need a stadium like this. I’ve never been and want to go for the first time with Everton. It’s an incredible possibility but first we have a very difficult game at Manchester City." As the tournament's favourites, Premier League title hopefuls and top scorers in the top flight, Manuel Pellegrini's men will, of course, pose stern opposition on their own turf. Everton will take heart from their last visit to the Etihad Stadium two weeks ago where a determined, stubborn performance earned them a 0-0 draw where they became the first visiting team to hold City goalless for a year. nd defence. “We can beat anyone,” the 21-year-old continued. "I think we can win every game because we have an amazing team but in some parts of the game we need to take responsibility and concentrate more. It’s more in the headGerard DeulofeuDeulofeu is confident that Roberto Martinez's side have what it takes to win if they can rediscover the balance between attack and defence. “We can beat anyone,” the 21-year-old continued. "I think we can win every game because we have an amazing team but in some parts of the game we need to take responsibility and concentrate more. It’s more in the head. We need to show more passion. "The games against City and Chelsea we played so well and I don’t know why we couldn’t do it in others. Everton have possession and it’s ‘touch, touch’ but we all need to defend together and not concede so many goals. All of the players need to take more responsibility in defence.” “We need to win and to get to Wembley. We have a very difficult game against City first but we can win because we are Everton. The results in the Premier League are bad but we are Everton and we have an amazing team. We will go to the Etihad for the win and to score because it will be important if we score. If I score then Manchester City will have to score two goals. Why not?" Reader Comments (10) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Geoff Evans 1 Posted 27/01/2016 at 17:36:52 Agree wholeheartedly and Delboy needs to up his contribution, suspect work rate and stamina if he has aspirations to play for Barca again. Paul Mackie 2 Posted 27/01/2016 at 17:42:45 It's almost like the lad has read Eugene's post about concenfuckintrating. Ian Riley 3 Posted 27/01/2016 at 18:46:37 The team as a whole need to work harder. Urgency is seriously lacking. I don't think our fitness levels are what they were. Tonight will tell us more about our hunger and desire. Harold Matthews 4 Posted 27/01/2016 at 19:35:44 Love this lad. Spot on with everything. He, Funes Mori and Besic have been the only ones playing with real passion.What's with this stamina business? Typical copycat chat. One bloke said Del and Ross looked knackered so a hundred others say the same. Some probably never saw the match. Well I saw the match and in the last 15 minutes those two lads were running everywhere. Because someone puffs and pants it doesn't mean he can't run. With 5 minutes left, Ross raced back to the right-back spot, made a tackle, won the ball and sent it forward. Knackered or not, they kept going. Tony Abrahams 5 Posted 27/01/2016 at 23:32:21 His stamina, is suspect, but his quality is not in doubt. Some big names on that pitch tonight, but this kid looked the best player on the pitch, until he had a good chance just after half time.He started fading badly then, but the decision to bring on Kone, as is replacement, was one of the most inexplicable substitutions I have ever seen in my life.Having already bottled out with his starting eleven, where he chose to play a centre half out of position, rather than recall Coleman, Martinez, opened the pitch up for City.In doing this he exposed Stones, instead of protecting him. And although we can feel hard done by with the ball being out of play, this absolutely pathetic sub, is the reason Everton have been knocked out the cup.Get fit Gerry and don't waste the gift that your natural talent gives you Kid. Jim Bennings 6 Posted 28/01/2016 at 07:48:21 He's got great feet but two nagging things about Deulofeu for me.His fitness.. Why is he always puffed out so early in games? Really he should be confined to a last 30 minute cameo role as sub until he gets fitter..Secondly he needs to work on his shooting power. He's got the sane quick feet as Cristiano Ronaldo but the difference when Ronaldo was Gerry's age he ripped the leather off the ball with his shots.Deulofeu needs to work on his leg power or smacking the ball hard against a target in training, the only way it will improve his power. Dave Pritchard 7 Posted 28/01/2016 at 07:58:53 Deulofeu is a danger to the opposition but frustrates as much as he excites. I think we have to accept that is the type of player he is. His early break where he showed lightning speed but then messed up the cross and his poor shot when one-on-one in the second half summed him up. It shows why Barca are not (yet anyway, maybe never) seeing him as a first teamer. His lack of fitness is baffling. Poor trainer? Eats the wrong stuff? Likes a pint? Who knows. Jim Bennings 8 Posted 28/01/2016 at 09:04:13 That for me is the big difference between the really top class young players in the world and the young players at Everton.Yes they have potential but they are not yet in the same category as the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo were at that age.Rooney for example rarely made wrong decisions at the age of 17, and as much as I don't like admitting it Steven Gerrard was the lynchpin of the Liverpool team when he was 21.With pur boys there's always something that's just holding them back and something that if they don't work on soon or have better tutelage then maybe they will never reach their full potential.With Deulofeu it's the stamina, the end product, the shooting power needs working on to add goals to his game, he should watch old footage of Andrei Kanchelskis and say I want to be that powerful.Likewise Stones needs someone to work on his basic defending, contrary to belief, it won't just come with age, it only comes through hard work, and a sensible tutor.Until then I'm afraid, these guys will all be potential and nothing more. Nick Armitage 9 Posted 28/01/2016 at 12:17:32 "Can beat anyone" is a world away from actually beating anyone.As much as I love the lad he and his team will go nowhere with that clown Martinez in charge. Any other Premier League club would have sacked him by now but sadly, Everton are different. Ian Riley 10 Posted 29/01/2016 at 16:20:20 What defence?? Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads © ToffeeWeb