Saturday 17 December 2016 16:30, UK
Ronald Koeman wants Everton's players to try and control their emotions in Monday night's Merseyside derby clash with Liverpool.
Koeman is no stranger to derby football thanks to his vast experience as a player and manager across Europe, but Mersey Monday will be his first with Everton as he took over from Roberto Martinez not long after the 4-0 hiding at Anfield towards the end of last season.
That game saw Everton centre-back Ramiro Funes Mori dismissed for scything down Divock Origi and Koeman is keen to avoid having to play Jurgen Klopp's side with any less than 11 men.
"Of course it's not a normal match, we know about the derby rivalry between Everton and Liverpool, but my position is to prepare the team and always in these kind of derbies you have an emotional part, and that you need to control. I think it's the most important thing," Koeman said.
"We showed last Tuesday two different faces in the game. Everybody knows which face we like to have from the start in the game and that's what we need.
"The derby is all about the fans and we understand that, but we need to be calm and stay with 11 on the pitch."
Having represented the likes of Ajax, Benfica and Barcelona during his career, Koeman has plenty of experience of rivalry matches, not always ones based on geography.
And he hopes Monday's match can live up to his best memories of previous derby games, adding: "My favourite was between Barcelona and (Real) Madrid because of that rivalry between Catalonia and Madrid.
"It's not only the football side, it's also a little bit the political side involved in that game.
"That was really special, but I'm looking forward to being part of the Merseyside derby. Everybody told me it's a derby that everybody likes."
Koeman is also keen to maintain the momentum Everton started to build in midweek when they came back from an early deficit to beat title-chasing Arsenal 2-1 in front of the Goodison Park faithful.
He would, though, prefer to avoid another slow start, and said: "The positive side is that we keep our belief, our spirit until the end of the game to get a better result. That's part of the character of the players.
"Of course we'd like to start better. Last Tuesday it was more about nerves, no confidence in the game. We made it difficult at the start, but we had a great reaction and that's how we need to play, at least at home.
"We had that understanding from the fans and that makes it really tough for every opponent to win at Goodison Park.
"It was a really important game - first of all the three points but also the way we played after the first 20 minutes. It was really important to know what we need to do as a team, with that positive aggression on the pitch.
"It's difficult to play always like that because it's also about opponents but that spirit in the team is so important."
