Conor Coady has cited a drop in personal standards and pride among the Everton squad as reason for today's dismal 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
The Toffees lost at the Vitality Stadium for the second time in five days as goals from Marcus Tavernier, Kieffer Moore and Jaidon Anthony came without reply. Everton's profligacy in front of goal was clear to see once again and they have now failed to score in their last three league games, but more concerning for Frank Lampard will have been the mistakes from the usually-reliable defensive unit.
Jordan Pickford spilled a shot into Tavernier's path for the opener, and the marking for the two goals that followed left alot to be desired - although James Tarkowski was on the ground with what looked like a head injury when Moore headed in from close range. But rather than point to individual errors or decisions going against his side, Coady lamented his side's efforts as 'nowhere near good enough'.
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"You can say what you want about the second goal but it's nowhere near good enough from our point of view," Coady told Evertontv. "I don't want to speak about the referee not doing his job or whatever, we speak about referees after every game so I'm not going to do that when we've just put out a performance like that against Bournemouth.
"I won't speak about the second goal but I will speak about the performance. Nowhere near good enough. It was nothing that represents Everton football club, represents our supporters, nothing."
Asked for the reason for the defeat, he continued: “Personal pride, standards that we set every single game in training we have to set standards every day in training. It's up to us as players to set standards and have personal pride in everything we do every day and we don't have that at the minute.
“We need to look at ourselves long and hard in the mirror because we're going into a break on the back of a performance that shocking and nowhere near good enough.
“We’ve had a long talk in the dressing room in terms of what's going on and what needs to be done and we need to look at ourselves. It's nothing to do with the manager or staff, it's up to us as players to look at ourselves in the mirror and give our best every single day.”
There were some unsavoury scenes after the final whistle as the Everton players trudged towards a 3,000-strong away end. Alex Iwobi saw his shirt thrown back onto the floor by fans while Jordan Pickford was also seen in a heated exchange as Lampard tried to usher his players away and calm tensions.
Reflecting on the fans' frustrations, Coady admitted that it is 'too easy' to play for Everton at the minute, and that the commitment from the squad today is not representative of the club.
"This is Everton," The centre-back bluntly added. "At the minute it is too easy to play for Everton football club who over the yeas have fought for Europe and been in cups. This is everyone and at the minute were not representing that as a team, as a club, for the supporters, were not representing that. We need to look at ourselves and quick because the only good thing to come out of this is the second half of the season, because before we know it well be looking at ourselves in march
"Today for me will take a long time to get over because that feeling on the pitch at the end of the game was horrendous. To see lads going over to supporters… it’s horrendous, you dont want to feel that as a team. We need the supporters behind us, but how can we expect them to be when we play like that?"
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