Fran Alonso doesn’t believe his old club Everton will be in trouble this season, but thinks they have underachieved so far.

Alonso spent two years at Everton being the assistant for Ronald Koeman, David Unsworth and finally Sam Allardyce during his time at Goodison Park.

The now Lewes Women’s manager gave his thoughts on how Everton have done this season.

He said: “I think they could have done better with the fixtures they have had most of them have been against teams that should finish below them.

“Apart from Manchester City they have still got to play a lot of them leading up till Christmas.

“I’m expecting them to be in around the top eight places in the league.

“I don’t think they will be in trouble this season, but they have underachieved so far.”

Alonso also knows from first-hand about the pressure of being involved in the management of the club.

He said: “The new owner came in and backed them financially. First season I was there with Koeman we finished seventh and qualified for the Europa League.

“Second season the fixtures were not kind and we had five of the top six but unfortunately we didn’t get the results we wanted and there was a lot of pressure.

“Koeman got sacked in October and I was lucky enough to work under the next two managers. Now Marco Silva is there and he in his first season got them to finish eighth which is around where we finished.

“However, this season it has not quite worked out they picked up a win last weekend against West Ham, but they were in the relegations zone prior to that win but they won’t be battling relegation this season.”

Silva has been under pressure from fans after a disappointing start to the season and Alonso feels that the form of their bitter rivals has not helped.

He said: “Obviously for the fans it has been a tough couple of years. Especially with Liverpool doing so well in the Premier League and the Champions League.

“It is a friendly but bitter rivalry and one that is great to experience, but it is hard when the neighbours are doing so well.

“They expect for them to be the top six places of the division and for them to be where they are is not what the fans and board at Everton want.”