Taylor wary of ´beast´ Lukaku

Steven Taylor believes Newcastle United must stop the “beast” Romelu Lukaku if they are to beat Everton on Sunday.

Newcastle are seeking to stem a run of four straight defeats in all competitions, the latest of which came in a 3-1 Premier League loss at Manchester United on Boxing Day.

Everton have also endured a sticky patch of late and have won just one of their past seven competitive matches, a 1-0 loss at home to Stoke City on Friday leaving them 12th in the table.

Centre-back Taylor feels that Everton have a lot of weapons in their armoury to hurt Newcastle, though, and suggested that Belgium international striker Lukaku and midfielder Ross Barkley need particular attention at St James’ Park.

“He [Lukaku] is an absolute beast – a top player,” Taylor said.”And they have players like Barkley, another top player.

“They have good players left, right and centre that will hurt you if you give them time on the ball, so it’s up to us to stand up and put our head in the way.”

Taylor admits that Newcastle were guilty of showing Louis van Gaal’s side too much “respect” and urged Newcastle not to give their opponents time on the ball.

“We made it far too easy for them. We showed them too much respect,” he added.

“We should have been right in their faces and put a few tackles in during the first five or 10 minutes like we did against Chelsea.

“We need to put pressure on the opposition. We need to test them out. If you give them that much respect, anyone can look good and we made them look good.”