Captain James Tarkowski spoke at the Etihad Stadium after Everton's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City
Everton captain James Tarkowski insists Beto doesn’t need “an arm around the shoulder” after his first-half misses at the Etihad Stadium were punished by the devastating efficiency in front of goal of Erling Haaland following the interval. The Blues created the best of the chances in the opening 45 minutes of their 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Iliman Ndiaye twice teed up Beto only to see the misfiring Guinea-Bissau striker – who had spurned an open goal playing for his country in Ethiopia last week – fail to hit the target before the Senegal international’s own dipping effort was spectacularly tipped over the crossbar by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Beto has netted just once in eight Premier League appearances so far this season but speaking in his pre-match press conference, manager David Moyes described him as a brilliant lad and said “his dedication to try and improve himself is second to none.”
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Tarkowski also doesn’t think there is any problem with the 27-year-old’s morale and reflecting upon his team-mate’s latest misses, he said: “Beto has got a great mentality. He works hard at his game all the time.
“I don’t think he needs geeing up too much. He’ll keep putting himself in positions to score goals and I’m sure at some point he’ll put them in like he did last season.
“I don’t think he needs an arm around the shoulder too much. The lads will support him if he needs it, but I’ve seen him working hard at his game ever since he’s been here, so he’ll keep putting himself in those positions to score goals and hopefully one will go in for him.”
In contrast, once this season has Haaland failed to find the net, in City’s 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, but other than that, he’s now struck 23 goals for club and country.
The most devastating Viking raider to have marauded English shores in over a millennium, in addition to the pair of hat-tricks he has hit for Norway (the first was a five-goal blast in their 11-1 romp against Moldova) and this was his fifth brace of the current campaign alone.
The 6ft 4in goal machine broke the deadlock on 58 minutes, with an expertly executed header from Nico O’Reilly’s left-wing cross but Tarkowski was left lamenting what a simple opportunity it was for a striker of his standing.
He said: “We put a lot of detail into it and in the first half I thought the structure was really good. We got the ball into areas where they’re least dangerous and didn’t allow them to get right up to our byline and doubled up on players like Doku and Savinho when we could.
“I thought we made it pretty difficult, so it’s just a shame the way they got in behind us so easily in the start of that second half. Any player in the world is going to fancy that chance, especially him from six yards out.
“He puts it in the one spot where it goes in. If it goes a bit to the side, Jordan saves it, a bit to the other and I’m on the line to try and clear it so typically he puts it straight into the back of the net.
“I think in the first half we managed him pretty well. He’s not someone who’s always involved in build-up play and linking, he just wants to be in the area to score goals.
“In the first half, I don’t remember him having too many chances, if any, but as a world-class striker like him, he gets one chance and it goes in.”
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Tarkowski added: “The ease in which they got around us was frustrating. In the first half, we had a real good shape to us and made their play as predictable as possible.
“They have got dangerous wingers who are going to cause problems, but I thought we defended it well most of the time and defended our goal very well. But the ease in which they get behind for the first goal is what kills us a little bit and then the second is so close to it.
“I’ve seen Beto’s chance back. I think his movement is really good and he’s just half a yard away to put it in the back of the net.
“We had a couple of decent opportunities in the first half, and I thought it was quite even. I was hoping to do a bit more of the same and create a few more chances, but the goal in the second half was so early and put us on the back foot and the second is so close after that it makes it an uphill battle.
“You ideally keep it 0-0 as long as you can and try and score when you can. Once you gift them a goal the way we did, you’re on the back foot.
“With a team like this, once you start to open up a bit more, they’ll get chance after chance like we saw at the end. But Jordan (Pickford) kept us in it, and I was just hoping to nick one late on to try and make it a bit nervy and see if we could get something out of the game.”