Seasons2017-18Everton News
Allardyce looking for more from 'surprised' Schneiderlin


Morgan Schneiderlin has reiterated his commitment to Everton and again indicated his surprise at the negativity that built up around him at the time of his reported ejection from training last month.
Along with Kevin Mirallas, the Frenchman was said to be have either been sent home from Finch Farm for lack of focus or left the Blues' training complex of his own volition after being given an ultimatum regarding their conduct.
While Mirallas has admitted that he acted irresponsibly, Schneiderlin has always denied the reports and urged supporters not to believe everything that they read in the media.
Perhaps because the former Southampton and Manchester United midfielder has been back in the team recently under new Everton manager, Sam Allardyce, the issue was raised again this week and Schneiderlin wasn't changing his stance.
"For myself I was surprised [at the reports] but there will always be some people who are going to believe what they read in the press,” he is quoted as saying.
"My only thing is to show them on the pitch that I'm 100 per cent focused. I can assure everyone that I am focused, that I'm just thinking about Everton and to improve the results and myself every day."
"It was the choice of the manager (Unsworth) not to put me in the squad, it was not because I behaved bad or something. It was just a choice for him.”
Schneiderlin came on as a second-half substitute against Liverpool almost two weeks ago and was named in the starting XI for the two subsequent matches against Newcastle and Swansea, suggesting that Allardyce was confident he was re-finding his form.
He was substituted in the second half against the Swans on Monday night, however, after which Everton's forward momentum improved, indicating that the new boss still feels Schneiderlin, along with the team as a whole, has some way to go before he rediscovers his confidence and best form.
“I would like to see Morgan hitting the heights of [his time at Southampton] and hitting the heights of last year when he first arrived [at Everton],” Allardyce said.
“That would be the way Morgan would try and get back and get back to his peak performances as quickly as possible.
“If we can help him along the way, we'll obviously do that and our doors are always open to support what he wants to do to get back to that top, top level that he's played at before.
“He isn't quite there yet but he's getting better and better and the quicker he gets back to his old self the better it will be for everybody.
“There's a lot players who have under-performed for one reason or another but if this run hasn't given them the confidence to get back to their best, I don't what more we can do really.
“So hopefully that will come and he'll get selected more and play more and deliver more [of the] performances we know he can.
“Before I came the players were playing it safe because they didn't want to take too many risks and because [of that] we ended up playing negative football, if you like.
“Too many balls went backwards and sideways and then too many mistakes were happening within the team and confidence drained.
“I was disappointed by the first-half performance against Swansea and our negative passing — not just from Morgan but the whole team. We seemed to want to play towards the wrong goal with the amount of balls Jordan Pickford was kicking.
“So, it's positive football, positive passing and Morgan being a key member of that that will get us going forward and in behind defences and hopefully scoring more goals.”
Reader Comments (30)
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2 Posted 22/12/2017 at 18:59:25
Let's see if Morgan and the others respond in what will be a very testing fixture.
3 Posted 22/12/2017 at 18:59:53
To me, he looks what he is – a snide Too many backwards and sideways passes and not a positive bone in his body. Love us to get shut to be honest but I can't see it.
4 Posted 22/12/2017 at 19:00:45
I am particularly impressed by the backroom team and Sams Analysis. His comments about our tendency to frequently look to pass back to Pickford is something I have noticed since our Europa qualifying games. This habit has two issues:
1. It shows a fear mentality in the players; and
2. It puts a fear mentality in me as I seem to be the only Evertonian who thinks the jury is still out on Pickford. I worry about his kicking ability in these situations often going out over the sideline and also his apparent in ability to hold the Ball and bat any save back into play. Hope I am wrong because we will need a commanding keeper if we are to make any progress.
If we get something from our games against the top six sides we can definitely say that this management team can help realise our dreams and believe they can bring us to the next level. COYB
5 Posted 22/12/2017 at 19:18:58
I hate to say it, but I've almost given up on that happening. Never seen a player fall so far so fast, from top form to deadweight over a summer. I'd give anything to see him light up the side again the way he did last spring.
And Neil (#4), you may not be the only one, but it would be a pretty small gathering at this point. Most of us feel Pickford has been plenty commanding, particularly in light of the chaos at the back earlier this season. Personally, I think he's outstanding and growing in stature every game.
6 Posted 22/12/2017 at 19:32:33
Beginning to love big Sam.
(Yeah, no ambition, best you hope for, blah blah!)
7 Posted 22/12/2017 at 19:39:21
The surprising thing for me, is he keeps getting picked, and the last two games, we have improved dramatically after he was subbed.
8 Posted 22/12/2017 at 19:52:37
It's going to be an interesting January.
9 Posted 22/12/2017 at 20:21:09
Morgan only joined us 11 months ago, not 18. And for the first four months, he was absolutely outstanding. He was MotM against West Brom, the game he scored in, and also against Leicester, when he had I believe eight tackles and ran the midfield.
From Schneiderlin's debut against Stoke until the end of the season, we were 8-3-1 with him in the lineup... and 0-1-3 when he was out injured.
"One-and-a-half decent games? Really?
Like I said, he has lost his form. But anybody who says he "never had any" is just wrong.
10 Posted 22/12/2017 at 20:23:43
11 Posted 22/12/2017 at 20:48:16
12 Posted 22/12/2017 at 21:20:24
13 Posted 22/12/2017 at 21:51:34
14 Posted 22/12/2017 at 22:32:30
I don't know how many times against Swansea in the first half, he ran forward and as soon as he was confronted by the opposition he checked and passed the ball sideways. The game changed dramatically when he was substituted and we became much more offensive.
I would like to see Tom start in his place tomorrow because it will not be pretty if we start so negatively again.
15 Posted 22/12/2017 at 23:15:23
Good point and don't know if it is significant because we soon realised when Koeman started well that he eventually lost the dressing room with criticism of players. His ego was bigger than the club.
So far so good with Sam but we do know he has an ego; let's hope he uses it well.
16 Posted 23/12/2017 at 01:11:01
17 Posted 23/12/2017 at 01:13:53
18 Posted 23/12/2017 at 02:02:00
I was thinking he joined us in the summer, you are right it was the January window he came to us.
Have a good Xmas and New Year, Mike, and your family, and all the other guys far and wide.
19 Posted 23/12/2017 at 02:13:30
20 Posted 23/12/2017 at 03:47:02
I completely agree. I was desperately hoping we wouldn't get Allardyce, but now he's here I have to say I'm impressed. He is saying the right things, the results have been very good and I'm hopeful the performances will follow suit.
With regards to Schneiderlin, I'm almost ambivalent towards him. I loved him when he joined, then grew to almost loathe him. Now he's just a name on the team sheet that fills a gap. He has as much of the ball as anybody and does absolutely knack all with it.
Saying that, I don't think Gana offers enough going forward either. He at least has a great attitude though, and defensively he's huge.
As an aside, I know Rooney has done well with his goals etc, but if I were Sam I would ban him from that bloody stupid Hollywood pass. The amount of times he rakes the ball 50 yards to Aaron Lennon's head. Just completely wasteful.
21 Posted 23/12/2017 at 04:29:41
If a permanent manager had been in place when they staged their walk out, then they would have been dropped from the squad and transfer-listed. We should get shot of Mirallas in January and Schneiderlin in the summer.
22 Posted 23/12/2017 at 05:10:57
23 Posted 23/12/2017 at 08:59:24
Those who would want to get rid of him because he has 'stunk the place out' when the team was not well organised under Koeman, need to think again IMO. There's a good chance he'll recover his original form, and we won't know unless we give it a chance under Allardyce. To get rid before that, would be cutting off our noses to spite our faces because of annoyance with past poor performances. Which would be daft.
24 Posted 23/12/2017 at 09:45:35
He's a straight talker and he says what we see.
Schneiderlin is a good player struggling. It's as simple as that.
25 Posted 23/12/2017 at 11:23:49
When Rooney dropped back our attacking pace quickened but I'm not sure I want Rooney starting the game back there against the top scoring teams in the league. I am willing to give Schneiderlin more time under a new manager as we have too much invested in him.
26 Posted 23/12/2017 at 12:03:08
You can't push him further forward it's just not in his psyche. Sideways and backwards, mopping up the loose balls has been his game ever since he was a kid at Strasbourg and at his age he's not going to transform into an older Tom Davies.
Lone defensive duties is what he did at Southampton... Their fans say that his defensive play is what made Wanyama look so good... and Man Utd bought him to replace Carrick which again was a mistake as they have Herrera.
He had a good game in Cyprus because he was on his own in his preferred role. Play him just like Gana with a creative partner and we'd see the best of him.
The problem we have in this day and age is that due to over rotation players are unable to form on field relationships. I'd have the older three Schneiderlin, Rooney & Gylfi train together as a midfield pyramid and the younger Gana, Klaassen & Davies do the same then rotate the trio so they learn each others game.
Increasing the behind closed doors 11 v 11s will help create this and bed in the new signings quicker rather than just throwing them on with 10 mins to go in an ad hoc manner.
27 Posted 23/12/2017 at 15:05:21
28 Posted 24/12/2017 at 06:03:43
He made some good tackles yesterday and retained possession well by twisting and turning out of trouble on one or two occasions. Much better.
29 Posted 24/12/2017 at 18:20:17
30 Posted 25/12/2017 at 08:21:46
He may just be innocent so why would he apologise. He's being picked and Mirallas is not that tells me everything.
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1 Posted 22/12/2017 at 18:57:48