Everton star Merlin Rohl played the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 win away at Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
It was only the second time Merlin Rohl had completed a full game since joining from Freiburg last summer.
David Moyes was really pleased with Rohl’s performance and admitted that it’s been tough for him to adapt up to now.
Was that Merlin Rohl’s best game in an Everton shirt? 💪
The German midfielder certainly looked a lot sharper yesterday, and hopefully, he’ll really start to kick on from now.
Rohl spoke to Everton’s website after the game and made an interesting admission about the Toffees fans.
Merlin Rohl says Everton fans are ‘crazy’
Rohl was blown away by how loud the away fans were at Villa Park on Sunday and explained that it made him so motivated to perform even better.
“I think the away fans have a really big impact,” the 23-year-old said.
“I’m not used to it, that the away fans are so many people and so loud. I really love that. Every tackle we made, every sprint you got, or good action, you got very nice feedback, and I love that.
What a win! Everton fans, who was your Man of the Match against Aston Villa?
So many great performances 🔥
“Yeah, it’s crazy for me. I really love the support. I love the shouting and all the pushing you can feel in every action.
“They’re really, like, crazy into football and I love that. I love to fight on the pitch, I love to run and I love to get feedback for the actions.
“That makes me happy when the supporters are happy and you can feel today that they’re pretty happy about the result and our team performance and that’s what we are looking for every game.
“I think we’re a good team now and try to look on to the next games and do even better.”
Merlin Rohl explains David Moyes’ masterplan vs Aston Villa
Rohl also highlighted how Moyes was able to tactically outclass Unai Emery.
“I think we were very well prepared for the match-up. They needed to work hard for every possession in the middle of the pitch and that was the plan,” the former Freiburg midfielder said.
“I think we had the perfect plan in the middle of the pitch to go one-on-one pressing and leave one (number eight) sometimes to the centre-back, so that was a really good plan.”
James Garner was crucial in winning the midfield battle and Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer was blown away by his level of performance.
Moyes suggested that Garner should be in the England squad after the game, and interestingly, Thomas Tuchel was present at Villa Park.
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