Andros Townsend has addressed the frustration of Everton supporters and admits that they have every right to feel that way after the side’s recent run of form. However, the winger highlighted the character they showed to fight back on a number of those occasions.
Andros Townsend remarked: “It’s always nice when you win football matches. For some reason we keep going behind and keep giving ourselves too much to do. But one thing we have been saying is that we’ve shown massive character I think in almost every game this season we’ve gone behind, to come back with a fight. If we can cut out the conceding early we can beat teams. We just have to keep going, keep believing, keep working hard in training – and I’m sure we can get there. I think at times we maybe haven’t played well enough, but I think you can see almost every game we’re getting ourselves back. That shows we’re fighting, we have character and the will to keep fighting for this football club, and the fans appreciate that. Yes they may be frustrated at times but at the end of the game they’ll always clap and appreciate the hard work we’ve put in. Like I said we just need to cut out the conceding early and giving ourselves a mountain to climb every game, and hopefully we’ll be ok.”
Recent weeks have seen some unrest in certain sections of the Everton fanbase, with protests directed at the board last month and banners against the manager in the win at Hull. Townsend understands the frustration of supporters and believes everyone at the club feels the same, but knows the players will fight to turn things around.
Andros Townsend added: “I’ve been in the game long enough to know, you just have to ignore what goes on on the outside. The fans have a right to be frustrated. We’re frustrated, the manager’s frustrated, everyone’s frustrated. We want to be doing better than we are at the moment so we understand their frustrations. But when we get on the pitch we have to put that to one side and fight for everything we get. Thankfully we managed to pull through today and hopefully we can get a bit of confidence from this and push on now.”
Townsend believes that Everton’s problems stretch further back, before his time at the club. Along with the likes of Demarai Gray and Salomon Rondon, he believes that the Blues’ latest signings are the exact characters that Benitez wants to see and the fans can get behind.
Andros Townsend said: “It’s been three or four different managers now, in four or five years, where Everton have maybe under-performed. So we know it’s not a manager thing, there’s been world-class managers here and the owner has spent a lot of money. As players we have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Why are we not performing? Why are we not higher up in the table? And that’s what we’re trying to do, that’s what we’re looking to do. The manager is trying to get the right characters for this football club. Myself, Dimi, Salomon – players who will work until the end. Maybe not fashionable players, maybe not players the fans wanted to see, but even with Salomon you can see he’s working and working, he’s chasing every ball down and he just hasn’t got the rub of the green and the goals he probably should have. I knew what I could bring, I knew that if I wasn’t playing well that I’d give my all. Maybe before my injury my form dipped a little bit, but I was still giving it my all. I was still trying to help the team defensively, and still trying to get crosses into the box even when things weren’t going. My experience has shown me that, even if I’m not playing well, there’s other ways to contribute. When I was younger it was all about the final third only, but now if it’s not happening in the final third I can help the team and that’s what you have to do as a player.”
