'I couldn't care less': Everton boss David Unsworth hits back at Joey Barton's 'glorified PE teacher' jibe

Everton manager David Unsworth has hit back at Joey Barton insisting he "couldn't care less" about the criticism aimed at him.

Unsworth's first Premier League game as interim manager ended in defeat as Everton lost 2-0 at Leicester City on Sunday (29 October), a result which left them in the bottom three with just eight points in 10 games.

Barton, who was covering the game for talkSPORT, launched a scathing attack on the 44-year-old, describing the former Everton defender as a "glorified PE teacher".

"I used to watch him as an Evertonian and he was the most immobile left-back I've ever seen. He's not a manager, he doesn't look like one," the former QPR, Newcastle United and Manchester City midfielder added.

"I watched him waddling on to the coach. How can you get players to exert themselves physically when you're out of shape?

"He's a glorified PE teacher who shouldn't be in charge of a men's team. Look at him on the touchline [...] he's more like a steward."

After the game, however, Unsworth, who replaced Ronald Koeman when the Dutchman was sacked a week ago, insisted he was unfazed by the comments.

"It's not a problem – anything Joey Barton says, I couldn't care less," he explained.

However, Unsworth admitted he was disappointed with his side's effort in the first half, which saw the Toffees go two down before the 30-minute mark, through goals from Jamie Vardy and Demarai Gray.

"I wasn't happy at all at half-time, it wasn't the performance I expected. We were a little bit fearful and sat back for some reason," the Everton interim manager added.

"We were better in the second half but you can't give anyone in the Premier League two-goal starts, you're always going to be struggling."

Unsworth rang the changes for his first Premier League game, with Kevin Mirallas and Aaron Landed handed a rare start, while summer signings Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaasen were benched and dropped altogether respectively and could be forced into shuffling the pack even further over the next two matches.

Michael Keane missed the game with a leg infection, which will keep him out of Thursday's trip to Lyon in the Europa League, while midfielder James McCarthy suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury.

"Michael got a bad gash when we played Sunderland in the League Cup in a challenge with James Vaughan," explained Unsworth.

"The infection spread up his leg and it was really nasty, but there has been a big improvement."