Ronald Koeman wants Everton’s players to banish their reputation of being ‘too nice’ to play against.
Preparations for the new season ended on a muted note for the Blues with a 1-0 defeat to Espanyol in front of a native Goodison Park support.
New signing Idrissa Gueye was one of the few that emerged with genuine credit from the encounter with the Spanish side.
And ahead of Tottenham’s visit next weekend, Koeman wants others to follow the Senegal midfielder’s lead by becoming more ruthless.
He said: “That’s the reason why we signed Idrissa for Everton – because he is a different midfield player than most of them.
“But also the rest of players need to be more aggressive. It is sometimes too nice.
“Football is not what you do on the ball. Football is most of the time, how compact you play, how you run, how you react and sometimes it is too sloppy.
“He can bring that but we have to show the players what we want and that is still difficult because if you play three seasons on your guitar and then one day you need to play piano it is difficult because maybe it is not your quality but it is also a mental question.”