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Ronald Koeman has told Everton to stop being “too nice” and start getting in the opposition’s face.

The Blues finished off their pre-season schedule with a limp 1-0 defeat at home to Espanyol on Saturday.

New signing Idrissa Gueye gave away a penalty but still produced an impressive display on his debut and Koeman says the 26-year-old adds a new dimension to Everton’s midfield.

And the Blues boss wants the rest of the players to take a leaf out of Gueye’s book and press with more intent.

“He is a different player and he can bring that to the team and that’s the reason why we signed Idrissa for Everton because he is a different midfield player than most of them,” Koeman said.

“But also the rest of players need to be more aggressive. It is sometimes too nice.

“Football is not what you do on the ball. Football is most of the time, how compact you play, how you run, how you react and sometimes it is too sloppy.

“He can bring that but we have to show the players what we want and that is still difficult because if you play three seasons on your guitar and then one day you need to play piano it is difficult because maybe it is not your quality but it is also a mental question.”

Koeman enjoyed success when he employed a 3-5-2 formation against Manchester United last week but says the Blues still have some way to go to be as organised as he would like.

“Football is not anymore the game when you have the ball, it is also the game when you don’t have the ball and we need to improve much more than we did so far,” he added.