Source: Telegraph
Tim Cahill: Everton's Europa League defeat to Benfica a big wakeup call
The midfielder says Everton must use their humiliation to kick-start their league campaign and ensure their hopes of improving on last season's fifth-placed finish do not peter out before Halloween.
The Australia international described captaining David Moyes's side in Lisbon on Thursday as "one of the proudest nights of my life". The result, though, which ruthlessly exposed Everton's pretensions of reaching the latter stages of the Europa League, quickly turned that into "one of the worst".
Rather than lick their wounds, though, Cahill wants his team-mates to use the club's heaviest European defeat in history to shake off the unpredictability that has marred their domestic season.
"Maybe it is the wake-up call we needed," he said. "For some of the players who have been at Everton for a long time, it is now time for us to react and show what it means to put on the jersey.
"I am someone who does not shy away from things. If anyone is going to be put into the firing line, I am the kind of player who will take the flak. I will take it on the chin and I just cannot wait for the Bolton game [on Sunday]. It's good that we are playing on Sunday, a chance for us to put this behind us.
"We have a lot of players to come back into the side and the defeat at Benfica will have been a good learning experience for us, especially some of the young lads. We can hit Bolton on the rebound now. We have a lot of firepower and we will soon have a lot of injured players back in the frame."
Such is the mantra of Everton's season. Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville and Mikel Arteta, though, remain long-term absentees, while the Russian winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is in danger of missing the match at the Reebok after injuring his thigh in Portugal.
Everton manager David Moyes believes the club's injury crisis is having a draining effect on the remaining fit players in his squad.
Moyes said: "The injuries are beginning to drag me down. It is just beginning to weigh on us. The other thing is, it is weighing on the players as the same few are having to dig deep all the time.
"We are looking forward to getting a positive result though against Bolton. We know it will be hard but hopefully we will have one or two back in the squad."
John Heitinga and Lucas Neill are available again after missing the match in Portugal as they were ineligible.
