Everton’s trip to face Lyon this evening is of course receiving a lot of coverage in France. The match at Goodison Park saw a scrap between Everton players, their Lyon counterparts, and even some fans.
After that match, Williams was the subject of much attention in the French media, with him being styled somewhat as a loose cannon who lost his temper because his limited talent couldn’t help Everton on the pitch.
It wasn’t gushing.
To be fair to the French media, they’ve calmed down somewhat and are ready to make allowances for Williams, suggesting it was the club’s general situation which saw him lose it, rather than a personal flaw.
Morgan Schneiderlin has tried to help, explaining to L’Equipe that Ronald Koeman had wanted to rally his troops at half time, and perhaps got them a little too carried away.
Speaking to L’Equipe specifically about his teammate, Schneiderlin wanted to reassure French Williams is a nice guy: “I was very surprised to see him nervous in the match against Lyon, because I had never known him like that. But we have to put things in context, the first half was difficult and the coach told us at the break that we had to be more aggressive. He took it a little too literally. But he’s someone who is really gentle, nice, fun.”
Whilst Everton certainly don’t want to see a repeat of the Goodison Park fracas, they don’t want the team approaching the match with too much friendliness.
