Merlin Röhl is still getting used to Everton’s “loud” and “crazy” away fans as they inspired the side to an impressive win over high-flying Aston Villa.
The German midfielder had his best performance in an Everton shirt at Villa Park. It was his 10th Premier League appearance after enduring an injury-laden start to his career with the Blues.
Röhl was covered a lot of ground during the game and carried the ball well. He was left impressed by the club’s 3,000-strong travelling contingent who made their voices heard throughout the game and believes they made a big difference.
“I think the away fans have a really big impact,” Röhl told the club website. “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.
“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 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.”
Despite missing several key first-team players, the Toffees gave a positive account of themselves and beat Unai Emery’s side, who had won 11 consecutive Premier League home matches before Sunday.
Thierno Barry scored with a lovely dinked finish at the near post to secure three points for David Moyes’ side.
“[I’m] happy about the team performance, happy about every person that gave 100 per cent today, happy about our plan against the ball and with the ball,” Röhl continued.
“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.
“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.
“I really like the confidence of the players and the manager when you go into games like this because nobody is afraid to play against such a good team.
“We always believe in ourselves and then you have the supporters as well and that's why we, of course, get a lot of confidence from games like this and [we’ll try to show that in] the next games.”
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