Ronald Koeman hits back at Jose Mourinho claims Everton should be challenging for top four

Ronald Koeman hit back at Jose Mourinho’s claims that Everton should be challenging for the Champions League positions by warning supporters they must be “realistic” about his club’s prospects this season.

Everton are marooned in the bottom three after United consigned them to their third defeat in their opening five Premier League matches and have now failed to score in their past four games in all competitions, during which time they have shipped 12 goals.

Koeman claimed Everton “started afraid” against United, and admitted to some self-doubts, but the Everton manager claimed a tough fixture list had worked against his side and dismissed Mourinho’s claim that they should be challenging for the top four, despite spending more than £140 million on eight senior additions this summer.

Mourinho had written in his programme notes that United fans should be braced for a “tough game” because “we are up against a team that has spent over £140m during the course of the summer transfer window, so obviously we are playing against a team that wants to at least secure a top-four position this season.”

The Portuguese also claimed after the game that the first half an hour of the match was “not competitive... and there was only one team playing, another team looking.”

Koeman responded by saying: “I read the United programme and what my colleague [Mourinho] said about Everton spending £140m and so they need to go for the top four. I’m sorry. If there’s anybody in this room and outside and sees this as something realistic for us, please comment. Be realistic. I’m not happy how we started the season, but please be a bit realistic about Everton. We need time, but it’s difficult in football.

“You can support players, give them confidence but still we started afraid. Maybe that is normal with the fixtures. We played Manchester City, United, Chelsea away and Tottenham at home - four title contenders – and with Europa League games in between on the Thursdays. We need to win. If you don’t win it is better to stop [losing].

“If you don’t like that pressure, please stop. That counts for the players and the manager. We need points. We need a win. A win is the best medicine to grow your confidence.

“Every manager in life has doubts. There is no one who has no doubts in life, in football, and if you don’t win... you have doubts as to the system to play but that is normal and of course I ask myself the question, why, why? But if [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan [the United midfielder] gets one year to adapt to the Premier League, we have eight new players, maybe I give them one year to adapt.”

United have exactly the same points total as City, and have scored and conceded the same number of goals as their bitter rivals, but Mourinho claimed he had given no thought to City’s 6-0 crushing of Watford.

“I didn’t think one single second in Manchester City,” Mourinho said. “I thought about Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, they lost, well, they didn’t win their matches and it was a chance for us to get two points, like they got last week when we drew against Stoke.

“So I just thought about them, not City. City won the game and did their job, I was thinking about the others, and when I saw their results, I thought it was an opportunity we cannot waste.”

Paul Pogba will undergo more tests this week as United bid to determine the full extent of the hamstring injury suffered by the France midfielder against Basel last Tuesday. But Mourinho dismissed as “complete nonsense” claims Pogba could be out for up to 12 weeks.

“I don’t know if it is 12 weeks or 12 days, honestly, any comment, view, rumour is totally wrong because we do not know if it is 12 weeks or 12 days,” Mourinho said. “It’s completely nonsense information. The player was diagnosed initially after the match because of the conditions of the muscle and the bleeding. The decision was one more week to wait to see really clearly the injury in the scans. It’s a normal procedure and we wait a few more days.”