Former Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has tasked his player Ross Barkley to impress and earn a call-up to the national team under Sam Allardyce.

The current Everton coach is set to hand Barkley a game when they take on former Everton coach David Moyes’ Sunderland.

Barkley was overlooked for the Euro 2016 under former Three Lions coach Roy Hodgson, and Sam Allardyce excluded him from the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovakia. He faces he fresh hurdle of impressing at Everton, and impressing enough to get an invitation under Allardyce.

“He’s still a young player. He was disappointed not to be selected,” Koeman revealed. “It’s good to have that support, but not just support, to also ask him why he thinks he wasn’t selected. I don’t like that [when players blame others]. First, you have to look at yourself. Every manager will select the best players and the best team.” Koeman added.

Koeman continued, asking the player not to point a finger at anybody else, but improve on his performances. He opined that maybe Allardyce wasn’t impressed with Barkley’s performance when he saw the game he played against Stoke City. Allardyce mentioned that he had the English player on his mind.

“I see Everton as a very similar club to Sunderland,” Moyes said. He was in charge of Everton for years, transforming the club from a relegation-threatened side to a first half regular. He says he wants to do the same for Sunderland.

“We are not going to be the biggest spenders, just like Everton weren’t, and it’s going to take time – at least three to four transfer windows. But even if we had a big pot of cash in the last window, it would have been difficult to do it overnight because of where we are as a club right now,” Moyes said.