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Though it is an overworked phrase in the modern game, Chelsea and Man Utd are undeniably going through ‘transitional periods’ in the background, having both experienced indifferent starts to 2019/20 under inexperienced managers.
Meanwhile, teams like Everton, Wolves and Leicester are apparently making the right moves to capitalise on the misfortunes of the less fortunate teams in the usual top-six. If the latest outright odds are to be believed, Premier League stalwarts Everton are the likeliest candidates to capitalise on that, and usurp what is again the expected top-six.
Everton – in a Good Place Right now?
With Everton signing a number of players for over £25m across the last four summers of Farhad Moshiri’s investment, their standing as genuine top-six contenders should be in no doubt – theoretically.
As with any club that has a serious war-chest for the first time in the Premier League era, it has not all been bargain after bargain. The likes of Yannick Bolasie, Oumar Niasse and Davy Klaassen have all proven expensive flops. On the flipside, however, sensible Evertonians must also realise just how cost-effective the likes of Lucas Digne and Andre Gomes – easily the best players of 2018/19, save for the departed Idrissa Gueye – have been since transferring from Barcelona.
Overall, the Toffees are more or less where they should be right now – in a comfortable top-half berth, with a return of seven points from the opening four matches being the nucleus of that standing.
However, the Toffees have achieved precisely nothing yet, and for all his early form, not even £35m man Alex Iwobi can single-handedly get Everton back amongst the greats.
Brutal Winter Opens Door for other Contenders
An injury-free Everton under Silva is capable of achieving great things – of that there is no doubt, and this is reflected by
href="https://www.marathonbet.co.uk/en/betting/Football/England/Premier+League/">Premier League betting markets which have Everton as favourites without the top-six.
However, the Toffees’ relatively easy start to 2019/20 gives way to a horrendous December. The yuletide month sees Everton visit Old Trafford and Anfield – venues at which they have won just once in 40 total attempts since the start of the new millennium, while losing a whopping 25 times.
There are also home games against Arsenal and Chelsea to negotiate, and while Everton beat both earlier this year with a brace of accomplished performances, the London duo are unlikely to play with such sheer alacrity yet again. The first match of the new decade then takes Everton to the Etihad Stadium, where they are winless since a 2-1 victory back in December 2010.
This will inevitably give some of Everton’s peers in the top half of the table a golden opportunity to make their own stab at the top-six. Leicester City are comfortably Everton’s nearest rivals, with some surviving players from the 2015/16 miracle squad knowing what it takes to make a mockery of the traditional ‘big boys’.
The club’s faith in youth, and improved fitness under Brendan Rodgers, looks like it is paying dividends. Still only 22, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans are continuing their handsome form of 2018/19, and ‘novice’ Harvey Barnes growing into the team, clearly learning much from ‘master’ striker Jamie Vardy on the evidence of his recent thunderbolt at Bramall Lane.
By a twist of fate, Leicester entertain Everton just four days before the Toffees undertake the dreaded journey across Stanley Park to Anfield, making 30 November a potentially key date in the race to break into the top-six. Thus, to limit or reverse any damage the winter might do, the powers at Everton must intensively look at areas for development over the next three months.
What is Missing in the Everton Team?
Though the early performances of Everton’s summer newcomers have been mostly encouraging, there is still an ever-present feeling that Everton are lacking something. After all, it is little short of criminal for a club of Everton’s size to go without a trophy for nearly a quarter of a century, especially with a youth setup that has twice won the Premier League 2 title since its inception in 2016/17.
Coleman: Time to pass the torch now close
In securing the likes of Iwobi, Delph, Kean and Gomes this summer, Marco Silva has combined the twin virtues of long-term ambition and short-term pragmatism.
However, there are still gaps to be filled, and a new right-back will soon be needed to replace the aging Seamus Coleman. There is no question that the Irishman has been a fantastic servant of the club, and will rightly be a part of the royal blue fabric for the rest of his life. Yet, while he is still perfectly game for the Premier League on most days, Coleman cannot cover the yards he once did.
His days of keepy-ups along the touchline against teams like Arsenal are finished, and in truth, he has never been the same since that long layoff from the broken leg he sustained, at the boot of unrepentant Wales international Neil Taylor, while on international duty.
“Big Dave’s gonna lift it up!”
In doing that deed – unintentionally or otherwise – centre-back Taylor has made himself arguably the biggest Goodison Park villain since Nick Barmby.
However, a centre-back in his mould could well be needed in January, as there is no guarantee that Yerry Mina and Michael Keane are going to stay injury-free throughout 2019/20. Chelsea’s transfer embargo also makes them loathe to part with Kurt Zouma, who was excellent during Everton’s pleasing run of victorious home clean sheets against top-six opponents earlier this year.
While recruiting for a centre-back who knows he will be nothing but backup is much more difficult, looking more intently at the character of a potential new centre-back is a good way forward. Though effective partners on most days, neither Mina nor Keane have the vociferous nature of Everton’s last trophy-winning defensive captain Dave Watson.
What Everton need is a wise old head, but one who is not afraid to shout when needed. Though perhaps contradictory of Silva’s value in younger players, men like Gary Cahill or Jan Vertonghen would have been decent acquisitions around the summer of 2018. Indeed, some games of last season certainly stick out as occasions where a true field marshal at the back could have made all the difference.
There was, for instance, Everton’s late FA Cup elimination at Millwall, after a third goal conceded from a set piece in one single evening. Other painful experiences, such as late, freakish heartbreak at Anfield after a tremendous battling performance, and pitiful defeats at Southampton, Brighton and Fulham, may well have been eradicated – or even reversed entirely – with a more composed, yet boisterous figure at the back.
Striker Still Needed
Naturally, however, it is Everton’s search for an established mid-20s striker from a top European league that will take precedence in the January transfer window. While Moise Kean is now the top boy heading Everton’s attack, he is still yet to score. Furthermore, any dip in his form will see Everton fail resoundingly to take advantage of their ailing ‘betters’.
An injury, however, would be ten times worse than a loss of form or confidence. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin now the object of many an Evertonian’s ire after going through a terrible scoring drought, and Cenk Tosun now nothing more than a last-ditch impact sub, Marcel Brands and manager Marco Silva must work their magic like never before to find an ideal alternate striker.
Plenty of names, from the ridiculously sublime to the simply ridiculous have come and gone from the rumour mill. There is still talk that Palace forward Wilfred Zaha could still join Everton in the future, even though his hefty price tag proved an immovable obstacle in his planned move to Goodison Park this summer.
Zaha’s apparent desire to leave Selhurst Park may yet give Everton more leeway in bargaining, and in any case, there are much cheaper alternatives for Everton to ponder. Indeed, the likes of Ashley Barnes and Callum Wilson might be fair game in January, and their value has yet to skyrocket as it might over the remainder of the season.
Written by Ketan Patel
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