Friday 22 December 2017 12:55, UK
Sam Allardyce has "transformed" the mentality of Everton's squad since he replaced Ronald Koeman, according to Andy Hinchcliffe.
Prior to Allardyce's arrival, Koeman had led Everton to just two Premier League wins and left Goodison Park with the club in the relegation zone following their 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal.
The Toffees have won three of the former England boss' opening four games, only dropping points in a 1-1 draw against rivals Liverpool at Anfield and Hinchcliffe believes he is the defining factor behind the Merseyside club's resurgence this season.
"It's as if a switch has been flicked and the players now really want to work hard for the team," Hinchcliffe told Premier League Daily.
"The players have realised that they've had to put the performances in and they've been transformed.
"With Koeman, it was as if they were just waiting to be beaten, clearly Sam has just changed the mentality.
"But he's got players in just the right position, [Morgan] Schneiderlin's come back in and done a much better job than he did earlier in the season.
"The balance of the team is right, [Wayne] Rooney is in a more central position, they've got [Dominic] Calvert-Lewin leading the line who Everton fans wanted there because of his ability to counter-attack.
"I just think it's the way the players have understood what Sam wanted from them and he's said,'Look it's now or never, you either start turning up and performing for me or in January I'm going to get other players in because the money will be there to do that."
Everton host Chelsea on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Premier League, as they look to continue their unbeaten run under Allardyce and Hinchliffe says they will be relishing the challenge of taking points off Antonio Conte's men.
"This is an ideal game to have now, if this would have come maybe in the first few games that he [Allardyce] had it would have been a much more pressured game and he gladly would have taken a point," he added.
"Now they're a bit more secure, he can take a few more risks and maybe go for the win.
"Playing against Chelsea is a tricky one because Chelsea need to win the game, but at Goodison with the big crowd behind them, Everton will fancy their chances.
"But you have to be careful, you can't just press Chelsea because they can play through you and you can't sit off for the whole game and see the job out because Everton don't necessarily have a lot of pace on the counter-attack."
