Coleman ‘the best right-back in Europe’

Martin O’Neill has become fond of trotting out the line about how Seamus Coleman is the best right-back in Britain, but the defender’s Everton teammate and opponent later this week, Steven Naismith, went a step further yesterday.

Coleman had just been nominated for the PFA’s Young Player of the Year award by the time Naismith arrived at Goodison Park in the summer of 2012, but the attacking midfielder has seen considerable improvement in the short time since.

“For me, he is the best right-back in Europe,” said the Scot. “When I first came to Everton he was a player who would get nervous and do a lot of stuff just off the cuff, whereas he probably thinks about his game a bit more now.