Michael Keane has claimed that he feels Everton are at a disadvantage as the Toffees are often the last of the relegation-threatened teams to play. They are embroiled alongside Leeds United and Burnley in a battle to stay out of 18 th place in the Premier League.
Frank Lampard’s side made a huge statement of intent at the weekend as they picked up a vital 1-0 win against Chelsea at Goodison Park which took them within two points of safety. With a game in hand to come, they can move above both Leeds and Burnley in the next couple of weeks.
Although, Keane believes that the two other teams have the benefit of largely playing before Everton between now and the end of the season.
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“It’s probably better to play first, I don’t think that’s going to happen to us unfortunately which goes against us a bit but that’s just the way it is,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports. “We know what we’ve got to deal with, all we can do is focus on ourselves, we’ll keep an eye on the other teams of course but we won’t let it affect us, we won’t let it affect how we’re going to play.
“I think you saw that at the weekend because Burnley had won the day before and then we have Chelsea at home, it becomes a massive game and we produce a win. It didn’t affect us there and we’ve got to take that same attitude into the next five games.”
This weekend, Everton are playing Leicester at the same time as Leeds’ trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal. Both games come 23 hours after Burnley kick off at Turf Moor against Aston Villa. Then, when the Whites welcome Chelsea to Elland Road three days later, they kick off just 15 minutes earlier than Keane and his team mates do in their clash with Watford.
The psychology of playing second can work both ways. If a team’s rivals have won previously, then it certainly puts more pressure on that team to get a result but if the team playing first loses, it can release some of that pressure on the team playing second.
There are momentum swings and pressure swings in all battles, whether that’s at the top of the table, for the European places or nearer the bottom. Managing those swings is one of the most vital aspects in such situations and Lampard, Jesse Marsch and Mike Jackson will all be fully aware of that.
