Sunday 1 November 2015 13:34, UK
Tim Howard insists he has not been shaken by criticism of his recent performances in goal for Everton.
Manager Roberto Martinez was this week forced to defend the form of his American goalkeeper and insisted he will start the Super Sunday clash with Sunderland, despite the impressive display of Joel Robles in the Capital One Cup in midweek.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports' Patrick Davison, Howard agreed he should have attacked the ball to prevent Olivier Giroud's goal in Arsenal's 2-1 win over the Toffees last weekend.
But he says his confidence has not been shaken because he can draw on plenty of experiences from a career which has seen him play for more than a decade for Everton, Manchester United and the USA
He told Super Sunday: "I think if you look back at how many games? 400 games? I'd like to know how many goals because in all of those games I probably could do better on every goal.
"In hindsight you know where it's going and the result. I don't have that luxury in a game.
I don't mind the criticism because I think my body of work speaks for itself. I don't have to say a word.
"If you don't have experience you have nothing to draw from. When you have experience you use that to stay positive and to move forward.
"As I've said all along, I don't mind the criticism because I think my body of work speaks for itself. I don't have to say a word.
"Thirteen years in the Premier League, probably over 700 games in my career, over 100 games for my country and two of the best clubs in the land… the next person who does that, I'll be impressed."
Everton conceded 13 goals in their opening 10 Premier League matches, but have already played the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea.
And Howard expects their form to improve after a tough start.
He added: "I think you get to my age, at 36, and you've pretty much seen it all. That's the fun part about it.
"Now it's just staying on top of training and topping up. I know what it's like to have success and failure and so you do all the right things to put yourself in a position to succeed.
"One of the things you deal with in the media is a blame culture. If you look at the games this season we've had a really good, I think, stretch of games. We always knew our first 10 games were going to be hellacious. We played all the top teams, teams around us and teams we feel like we were better than on certain days.
"You don't always get the results you want. Form ebbs and flows. My confidence is always there; it's tough to shake my confidence.
"Good games are only around the corner and bad games are only around the corner. No goalkeeper has a God-given right to perform brilliantly."
See more from Patrick Davison's interview with Tim Howard on Super Sunday from 12.30pm on Sky Sports 1 and stay tuned for live coverage of Everton v Sunderland.
