FEELING FRESH

Phil Neville hails the strength of the Everton squad.

Phil Neville has hailed the strength of Everton’s squad.

The Blues were deprived of the services of Leighton Baines and Andrew Johnson through injury for the 3-1 victory over Birmigham City but their spells on the sidelines have coincided with the return of James Vaughan, Tim Cahill and Thomas Gravesen. 

And the Everton skipper believes the comeback of the trio has given the Toffees a sense of freshness ahead of a busy run of games coming up.

“We are getting a freshness back to the place even though we had extra-time against Luton,” he told evertonTV.

“The manager thought we would benefit from that in terms of fitness and we did against Birmingham.

“Things at the moment seem to be coming in the right direction and the players are getting fit. You saw that with Vaughany and Tim Cahill over the last couple of weeks.”

He continued: “We believe we are building a squad that can keep improving.

“If you took four players out of the team last year you would have been down to the reserve team players and the young kids.

“We have got a really strong squad at the moment. I think there is a freshness there with players coming in.”

Everton currently occupy eight place in the league and Neville is aiming for another top six finish this term.

“We have kept ourselves in the chasing pack,” he said.

“The games are coming thick and fast and we have got to make sure we keep ourselves fifth, sixth or seventh.

“We need to make sure when the Uefa Cup group stage finishes we can really kick on in the Premier League. That is what good teams do and that is how good teams become great teams.”

Watch the interview with Phil Neville only on evertonTV now.