Former Everton boss Sam Allardyce has responded to a swipe from Blues manager Marco Silva.

Allardyce urged Silva to sway from his 'attractive' style of football after the Toffees suffered defeats to Brighton, Tottenham and Leicester over the festive period, prompting a backlash from his Goodison Park successor in a press conference.

“I don't expect him to listen to me!" Allardyce told talkSPORT.

“I was generalising about Everton overall, I wasn't having a pop at Marco Silva.

“I was saying that in the end, look at the previous four managers of Everton, including myself – all of them have been dismissed for one reason or another.

“Marco Silva hasn't yet, but pressure on him will depend on where they are in the league and winning football matches.

“The press man who asked the question probably didn't put it how I said it in that interview."

Allardyce also remarked: “I think you play out from the back when it suits you, and if you doesn't suit you, you don't play out from the back.

“Everton is the only place where results haven't given me time to go and do a better job than I did last season.

“At the end of the day, it wasn't my team. I inherited that team.

“I was doing the best I could with the tools I had available. Moving on from there, they've spent a lot of money again, and where will they end up this season? That's building expectation by the amount of money they spent.

“I think there's only four players that played when I was there, all the others are new players that were brought in this season.

“The players themselves have got to find out about each other as they play every week and maybe that's why they aren't getting the results that the Everton fans would expect."