Sam Allardyce has told Morgan Schneiderlin to ‘find himself’ at Everton.
Schneiderlin’s Goodison Park career nosedived after an initially promising impact following his £20 million arrival from Manchester United last year.
A series of disappointing performances this season saw the France international become a target of anger for Blues supporters.
But while the midfielder has improved in recent weeks, notably in Monday’s win over Newcastle, Allardyce has challenged him to maintain that level of form.
He said: “Morgan Schneiderlin is looking like a very important player for us in midfield, not just with his interceptions but his distribution with the ball is getting better and better.
“I think sooner or later he has to find himself from where he used to be. Sometimes it takes a while to find yourself.
“After a disappointing move that didn’t work at Manchester United where for the first time he found himself not very involved.
“Then he came to Everton and is trying to reinvent his career.
“Sometimes it takes a bit of time and obviously the whole team suffered a lack of confidence. I think everybody is finally going in the right direction.
“I think the confidence is going the right way but there needs to be more consistency.
“Morgan coming up on his game if he continues to show a consistent level of form, which he’s done in the past, we will all get better with him.
“Fans always like to see you play your best and will always support you. If you don’t play so well they will show their disapproval, that’s been in football since it was invented.
“What you have to do is make the fans want to cheer you and at the moment his game has improved very well.”