Barry Tells Barkley To Prove Allardyce Wrong

LONDON, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -5th Sep,2016) : Gareth Barry hopes Everton will benefit from midfield colleague Ross Barkley's determination to force his way back into the England squad.

The 23-year-old Barkley's omission for the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in Trnava was the main talking point when new England manager Sam Allardyce named his first squad in charge of the national side.

England scraped a 1-0 away to 10-man Slovakia on Sunday when midfielder Adam Lallana, who plays for Everton's city rivals Liverpool, scored with the last kick of the match in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Toffees veteran Barry, who won 53 England caps from 2000 to 2012, said it was down to club colleague Barkley to prove Allardyce wrong. "Ross can feel a little bit hard done by," said the midfielder, speaking at Everton in the Community's annual charity golf day on Monday.

"It's a tough job being England manager and Sam said it was a really tough decision for him but in terms of Ross now he needs to use that to help him improve and not get down about it but prove the manager wrong and get himself in the next squad.

"In a selfish way for Everton that means him performing well for Everton, so that can only be good for us." Barry, 35, added: "I trained with him and he didn't seem too worried about it. He's got that grit between his teeth that he's going to prove the England manager wrong so hopefully he can put in good performances with Everton to do that.

" Meanwhile Barry said Everton had to make a serious bid for European qualification this season after two successive 11th-place finishes in the Premier League.

Everton, under new manager Ronald Koeman, have won seven points out of a possible nine in their first three games of the season -- their best league start for a decade. Barry believes the changes made by Dutch boss Koeman, previously in charge of fellow Premier League side Southampton, will help the Merseysiders tighten up after they were criticised for having a weak defence under former manager Roberto Martinez.

"The manager (Koeman) made a point in terms of the way he wants the training to change and I could see where he was coming from," said Barry. "He likes the hard work to be put in and that's fair enough.

The training is a bit more structured and we're doing a lot more afternoon sessions to previous. "His standards are really high; he wants us to keep them and as soon as anybody drops them, no matter who you are, he lets you know so it's good for all the players involved.

"So seven points from nine, and through to the next round in the League Cup, it's a great start. "The club just wants to be playing European football regularly. It's a huge club and the fans deserve to be seeing European nights every season so there's no reason why we can't be targeting those places."