Jagielka: We need consistency
Everton captain Phil Jagielka admits they have to find a way to regain their consistency next season in order to avoid a repeat of a disappointing campaign.
A combination of European football and a high number of injuries left the Toffees facing a relegation battle for a brief period.
They pulled themselves out of it in a run of six matches from which they picked up 16 points but they can finish no higher than 10th this season and will fall way short of their 72-point tally of 12 months ago.
"It has been frustrating season," said the captain, who recorded a clean sweep at this week's club awards winning player of the season, players' player and goal of the season for his long-range strike in the Merseyside derby at Anfield.
"We have played some really good football and really average football as well and it has been a case of us not finding the consistency of last season.
"We have one more game to go. We hope to finish off well and look at where things went wrong for most of the season and then hopefully address it for the start of next."
On whether European football was particularly damaging to their domestic form he added: "Obviously it has some truth because we had a lot more games to play this season and we unfortunately had some injuries in key areas - and the extra games didn't help recovery.
"We will look at it as some issues we can address and hopefully we can do that as soon as possible."
Everton sign off at home to Tottenham and Jagielka is keen to finish on a high after victory at West Ham last week returned them to winning ways after back-to-back defeats.
"We want to give the fans something to cheer about for the last game," added the captain.
"We have put in a few decent performances but let ourselves down in a couple of games not so long ago but got a good win at West Ham and hopefully we can finish the season on a high.
"We have massively high standards ourselves and where we finish, whether we win or not, it is not where we want to be.
"As a team we need to make sure we set our standards higher."
Mauricio Pochettino accepts it may be difficult for people outside Tottenham to see the club's progress this season, but remains confident they can continue to move forwards.
Spurs head to Merseyside looking to secure qualification for the Europa League.
Whatever the result at Goodison Park, however, the north London club cannot now better last season's tally of 69 points, which was good enough for sixth place under Tim Sherwood.
Current boss Pochettino, though, feels Spurs are moving in the right direction, having reshaped a squad which reached the Capital One Cup final at Wembley, yet failed to break back into the Champions League places.
"For me, yes (there has been progress), but you need to analyse and assess the season," said Pochettino, who left Southampton to take charge at White Hart Lane.
"We are in a process with a lot of change, and it is difficult for the people outside to see, but we are ambitious, so for that we need to work hard to do better next season."
Pochettino continued: "It takes time to develop your philosophy, but I think the main group now understand us and share our philosophy and management, for the future this is very important.
"Next season if we analyse this season, then the gap (on the top four) is not too big, but we need to be more consistent and improve in some areas."
With goalkeeper Michel Vorm a doubt for Sunday's match because of illness, veteran Brad Friedel could be on the bench for what would be the 43-year-old's final match before retirement.
"It is an unbelievable moment for Brad and great to share it with him because he is an unbelievable professional and deserves all good things for future," said Pochettino.
Source: PAR
