Saturday 30 September 2017 20:49, UK
Everton manager Ronald Koeman says the time for excuses is over ahead of Sunday's visit of Burnley to Goodison Park, live on Sky Sports.
Koeman's expensively assembled team was again disappointing on Thursday, being held to a 2-2 home draw by Cypriot outfit Apollon Limassol in the Europa League.
That halted what had been something of a mini-revival, with Everton having won back-to-back matches against Sunderland in the Carabao Cup and Bournemouth in the Premier League after losing four in a row in a six-game winless streak.
"It's not time to find any more excuses," said the Dutchman. "The next game is on Sunday. With a win, everyone will be happy and maybe 'Everton are back', that will be the newspaper on Monday.
"If we don't win, the newspaper will be totally different. But that's football and I accept that way of thinking."
Koeman feels the gap between Thursday's and Sunday's fixtures does not give his team enough time to properly work on the training ground and he said: "We had a session (on Friday), but that was to recover.
"It is a short session on Saturday, and then we play on Sunday.
"If you play European football, you don't have time. (But) maybe it's good to have the next game close by after Thursday."
Koeman only made three changes to his starting line-up against the Cypriots, and, when asked about that, said: "It's more difficult.
"Arsenal played in the Europa League (away against BATE Borisov) and kept all their important players at home.
"They won their first game (Arsenal beat Cologne 3-1 in their Europa League group opener, while Everton lost 3-0 to Atalanta), and are in not such a difficult group. It makes a totally different situation.
"With the injuries we have, the players we have available is less than we expected, and that makes it even more tough to play on Thursday and then Sunday.
"But we like to go on in Europe, because it is good for experience."
