Ronald Koeman has issued an SOS call to Wayne Rooney to help deal with Everton’s crisis of confidence.
Koeman admits morale is low because of Everton’s run of just two wins from their last 10 matches and will recall Rooney for Sunday’s game at Brighton.
The Blues boss dropped Rooney for the defeat to Burnley for tactical reasons and says the former England skipper’s vast experience is vital for the team at this difficult time.
“He’s always in my thoughts to start,” said the Koeman. “Of course, it’s the time for all the experienced players, for everybody who starts to be a team and get a good result.
“In that team there are experienced players who can deal with the pressure.”
Koeman saw his side’s fragile confidence shattered when Burnley scored and Everton have been behind for 308 minutes of their seven Premier League games.
Only hapless Crystal Palace have trailed for longer and Koeman admits his players are struggling with self-belief.
“OK, of course going behind is difficult,” said the Dutchman. “In the game against Burnley, if you go ahead compared to going behind, that makes it totally different.
“I saw the reactions of the players when Burnley scored the goal and it was ‘s**t again!’, doubting, mentally it’s difficult when out of one chance, they score a goal.”
Koeman is trying to rebuild his players’ confidence on the training pitch and says their gruelling schedule - Brighton is their 15th game already this season - makes that task hard.
“You try to give the confidence in training sessions to support the players,” he said. “But we know we have so tough a schedule of fixtures that we don’t have good training sessions.
“Also we have not one new player, but eight or nine new players. That all makes it really tough.”
Ashley Williams’ collapse in form epitomises Everton’s struggles and his mistake for the Republic of Ireland’s winner against Wales was similar to his clanger for Apollon Limassol’s goal.
“He is one of the players, who is finding it really difficult at the moment,” said Koeman. “He is trying to find his confidence, but he’s an experienced player for sure.”
Despite his predicament at Everton, Koeman insists he remains committed to the Blues and ruled himself out of the vacate Holland job.
“I am Everton manager,” he said. “That’s the most important thing.”