Watford vs Everton - Koeman tells team to rally around Romelu Lukaku after Bolasie blow

Posted Saturday, December 10, 2016 by PA

Everton manager Ronald Koeman admits leading scorer Romelu Lukaku needs more support to get him back on target ahead of the trip to Watford.

The Belgium international has scored just once in the last six Premier League matches. But with winger Yannick Bolasie, who has provided four assists for Lukaku, now out for a year with knee ligament damage, the manager has put the emphasis on the rest of the team to step up.

Koeman said: "You can have a good run of scoring goals and then have a bit of time where you don't really get big chances to score.

"The players around him need to create more and he can improve in his movements - it's a team question to create more chances.

"We know how we need to create chances for him. If he gets the chances, we know he will score goals."

Everton have won just once in their last 10 matches across all competitions but despite taking two points from their last four games they remain in eighth place.

However, their away record is poor with just seven points out of a possible 21 on the road, having not won since mid-September at Sunderland.

If they were to lose at Watford they would be overtaken by their opponents.

A failure to win against Watford would also increase the pressure with trips to Arsenal and Liverpool due before Christmas.

He said: "We don't have a good away run at the moment and we need to change that."

Watford have lost to Stoke and West Brom in their last two outings, and sit 11th in the table heading into the weekend.

The team were praised by boss Walter Mazzarri after the 3-1 defeat to West Brom last time out, and Hornets midfielder Adlene Guedioura also feels they are heading in the right direction with their performances.

Guedioura told Watford's website: "I really think we are improving even though we lost the last game and when we improve some parts of the game I think we will be a very, very strong team to beat.

"It's a shame about the result but we have another game on Saturday to change that."