Cenk Tosun makes Everton debut in loss

LONDON

Turkish international striker Cenk Tosun made his Premier League debut on Jan. 13 when his side Everton loss 4-0 to Tottenham at Wembley.

Tosun joined the Liverpool club from Turkish champion Beşiktaş last week for a reported fee of 27 million pounds.

Tottenham dominated the 62 minutes Tosun was on the pitch at Wembley as his Everton teammates failed to offer him much support up top.

Everton manager Sam Allardyce said Tosun’s performance was “okay,” adding that he expects more from him in the future.

“He was okay. I think it was a very difficult day for him, and a very difficult day for us all in the end. As he gets used to more and more to the Premier League, it’s definitely an area of improvement that we need more than anywhere else I think,” Allardyce said after the game.

“If he can get us holding the ball up, and we can get better service and get the ball in the box like he likes, hopefully he’ll do what he’s done for Beşiktaş in their league and in the Champions League,” he added.

The manager, meanwhile, warned fans about an impending drop back to relegation danger after his side’s “embarrassing” loss.

“I’m worried about the run we are in at the moment. West Brom becomes a massive game next week so we don’t get dragged back into that relegation zone,” Allardyce said.

“After having a wonderful, wonderful start, we are back on dangerous ground with our results. It’s our responsibility to get results to keep ourselves away from that and not wait to see if the others have lost.”

Former England and Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand said after the game that Tosun should get used to not getting much help from his teammates.

“I hope that the word isolation was mentioned in his contract negotiations when he was signing for Everton,” the footballer-turned-pundit joked on BT Sport.

“I don’t think he would have had this too often at Beşiktaş where he was left up on his own playing.

“But this is what he’s going to have to deal with.

“But there have been moments where it looks like he’s got some decent hold-up play, some aggression, physicality.

“With players like [Gylfi] Sigurdsson and [Wayne] Rooney around him with that class and quality, if he can just get that ball tighter together they can start creating some things.”