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Koeman calls for greater Lukaku support

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 20 Oct 2016

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Everton boss Ronald Koeman has called on the rest of his attacking players to take some of the goalscoring burden off the shoulders of in-form striker Romelu Lukaku.

The Belgium international has claimed six of the club’s last eight league goals, with Kevin Mirallas the only other forward to have scored in the top flight this season.

And while insisting that Lukaku is comfortable with the pressure of being the side’s main goal threat, Koeman would like to see the 23-year-old’s team-mates, and Yannick Bolasie in particular, find the net more regularly.

“The productivity of one player is very high and that is Romelu,” he said. “The players around him attacking-wise need to show more productivity.

“Of course you like to have more players in your team who score goals, but other than last week, I think we create enough chanc
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es to score.

“It’s not more pressure for him [Lukaku] because he is a goalscorer who has shown that over many seasons. That is one of his best qualities, but it is always good to have other players scoring as well.

“Yannick Bolassie is the kind of striker you like to have in your team. He can play in different attacking positons, he brings a lot of energy and likes to work hard and improve.

“He’s very committed to the club, but he’s one of those players that needs to have a little bit more productivity in terms of goals.”

Ross Barkley was left out of last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Manchester City but Koeman hinted that he may bring him back for Saturday’s clash with Burnley.

“In my opinion it was the best line-up to get a result against City last week and Ross’s reaction [to being left out] was positive,” he continued.

“He was disappointed, but you need to be disappointed if you don’t start. He’s training well and it could be different this weekend.

“We will have more possession of the ball this weekend than we did last week and that could be a reason to start with one or two different players.”

Koeman went on to confirm that Leighton Baines has suffered a setback in his bid to recover from the hamstring injury that has ruled him out for over a month.

“Leighton has had a setback in his hamstring injury and won’t be available,” the Dutchman added.

“He did the normal program and played in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Wigan, but afterwards he was a little bit stiff so they did an MRI and he wasn’t right to continue with his comeback.”

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