Everton FC: John Heitinga insists Blues can afford no more injuries

Jan 9 2012 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

JOHN Heitinga insists Everton’s small squad cannot afford any further injuries – after Seamus Coleman became the latest casualty during the FA Cup victory over Tamworth.

The Blues lost Coleman to a reoccurrence of his thigh problem in the second half of their uninspiring 2-0 win over the non-League outfit on Saturday, and the Republic of Ireland international joins Phil Jagielka, Leon Osman, Tim Cahill and Tony Hibbert on the sidelines.

Manager David Moyes hopes to plug some of those gaps in this month’s transfer market, but Heitinga – who headed home the opener against Marcus Law’s side – warned that Everton’s fringe players must be ready to step-up to the required level ahead of trips to Tottenham and Aston Villa.

He said: “Everyone needs to stay fit now, we can’t afford more injuries. We don’t have a big squad and we’re struggling with these injuries. Hopefully the lads who come in can do it and replace the players who are injured.”

Heitinga has been deployed in central midfield and central defence already this term, and says flexibility is important when injuries begin to take their toll.

“Centre-half is my best position but the manager knows I can play in midfield,” he said. “Fellaini was injured and Jack Rodwell was out so that’s why the manager asked me to play as a holding midfielder. Jack’s injured again so we have to move people around to get 11 on the pitch.”

Despite his concern about Everton’s thinning squad, the Holland international was happy to be back anchoring the defence, and was full of praise for the man alongside him against Saturday, Sylvain Distin, even if he felt the Blues were not good enough overall in their third round tie.

He said: “I’ve played with Sylvain before and the combination is good. It’s a shame Jags in injured for a few weeks, and hopefully he can recover soon. We have to deal with what we have at the moment.

“Sylvain is a good defender and we play well together. He’s unbelievably quick. He’s in his mid-thirties but he’s so quick and strong, he’s a pleasure to play with.

“It was not an easy game for us. It was more because of us than them. We scored after five minutes and it’s important for us to make a second goal after that but we forgot how to play football after the first. We didn’t have great possession and gave some easy free-kicks away. In the end they had five or six corners in the first half and you’re under pressure, even from a team like them.

“I think the set piece was good from Landon and I was lucky to score with my head. I haven’t scored as many as I’d like, in the past I scored more for Athletico and Ajax but that was my second goal in my third season.”

Toffees skipper Phil Neville agreed that Everton did not show enough quality against Tamworth. He said: “The thing is at the moment virtually all our games are going to the 90th minute and there is no chance for us to step off the gas.

“Something we don’t do enough is see off games, by keeping the ball and conserving energy.

“We had to simplify our game, do the basics, keep our shape and track runners. We gave away a couple of silly free kicks, which meant their fans got up – but I must say that was nice.

“Their 5,000 supporters made it a really good atmosphere. At half-time the manager told us we couldn’t give them any more encouragement because they were building off our mistakes.

“In the first half our passing wasn’t crisp enough. The second goal was always going to kill the game – it’s just a pity we didn’t get it earlier.”