Fan Comment

Everton’s Pressing Concerns

Early season optimism has given way to mid-season pessimism at Goodison Park. The promise of a successful, high-profile manager coming in combined with a new scouting team and – crucially – real squad investment has given way to the harsh realities as autumn gave way to winter of an underperforming group of ageing players putting in some truly inept displays. Restlessness with the squad, the tactics and even the manager has set in, but what’s caused these problems?

Arguably the biggest issue we’re facing here is the management changes we went through this summer, or at least the timing of them. Everton, under the influence of Farhad Moshiri, decided to move to a new management structure including a Director of Football. It was also clear Moshiri wanted to get his man in for the role, rather than any other easily available candidate. This led to a certain delay while negotiations with Koeman (and his club Southampton) were completed.

Koeman’s appointment was ultimately announced on 14 June, with players away on holiday or at the Euros and with no coaching team in place for him to work with (who mostly left with the previous manager). Furthermore, Director of Football Steve Walsh wasn’t recruited from Leicester until 21 July, meaning we didn’t have Moshiri’s desired structure in place until just three weeks before the start of the season.

The new management team also rightly wanted to look at the squad they had at their disposal to sort out the wheat from the chaff and to look at the options available to them before diving into the transfer market. This meant that during pre-season we saw Deulofeu playing as a striker, Tom Davies at right back and only 45 minutes of action for Oumar Niasse. Personally, I think this was the right thing to do – particularly as we have a number of interesting young players to consider.

A downside of this approach has been a quiet transfer window, with only four senior players joining despite us being linked with a multitude of global superstars. Hopefully however this also means we’ve avoided too much panic buying, with only a last-minute attempt to sign then-Newcastle wastrel Moussa Sissoko (which we thankfully missed out on) in the ‘dodged a bullet there’ pile. This has left us with essentially the same squad that we finished last season with.

So what do we have to work with? Well, even after disposing of 30-somethings Howard, Hibbert, Osman and Pienaar, we’re left with a squad including Baines, Jagielka and Barry (plus new signings Stekelenburg and Williams and the rarely-spotted Koné) – all of whom are uncomfortably north of their 30th birthdays. Good experience, no doubt, but are they suitable for the type of football our new manager wants to play?

Ronald Koeman, being from that country, is from the Dutch school of football – and specifically, is Cruyffian in his background – having worked with the master tactician during his playing career at both Ajax and Barcelona. Some of the most common words we have heard coming from his mouth since his appointment have been words like "aggression" and "e;pressing"e;. He wants to play with a high defensive line and win the ball back close to the opposition’s goal – in theory making it quicker to get to goalscoring positions. Music to the ears of many Evertonians used to Roberto Martínez’s more passive style of possession, but something that presents something of a tactical and physical problem for Koeman.

His preferred style requires lots of stamina, work rate and tactical discipline. The fading legs of our defenders and yes, even the evergreen Gareth Barry, have dictated that this may not be possible. Is it a coincidence that our fiercest display of midfield pressing was against Arsenal, with Barry rested and with McCarthy, Gueye and Barkley scrapping in the middle, other hard workers like Lennon and Valencia further forward?

From my view, the following week’s derby went away from us as soon as McCarthy went off injured and his aggressive energy was lost. Barry is a fine player, no question, but he is not the solution for a midfield of this type as he simply doesn’t have the legs to cover the ground – at pace – as Koeman would like him to. This leaves gaps which are not being filled by other members of the team who just aren’t capable (or don’t want) to put in the required effort.

Continuing the theme of our new manager’s preferred style and our present squad’s suitability for it, the Dutch school requires multi-faceted players who are comfortable in a number of situations, both in and out of possession. This includes defenders comfortable on the ball (think Frank de Boer), midfielders who can both create and destroy (Wesley Sneijder, Clarence Seedorf) and wingers who score goals (Marc Overmars, Arjen Robben). Simply put, we don’t have enough of these types of player.

Whatever their other qualities, the likes of Tom Cleverley and James McCarthy – key members of the squad as they still are – do not offer enough defensively (particularly Cleverley is not suited to pressing and tough tackling, averaging half the number of defensive actions this season as Gueye) or creatively (McCarthy has 5 goals in 121 Everton games and Cleverley 2 in 41). This means that defensively, too much responsibility is falling on the petite but sturdy shoulders of Idrissa Gueye and hence our ageing rear-guard is being exposed, and creatively our passing is often slow and risk-free.

Further forwards, all the creative impetus has to come from Ross Barkley, who is already struggling under the weight of being Everton’s latest Great White Hope. With so much attacking responsibility, and so little movement around him, is it any wonder that Barkley is sometimes ponderous and takes an extra touch? He’s also spent the last three years looking to retain possession and wait for a gap to open rather than force the issue as his new manager requires. The crowd then gets on his back and you can see the anguish etched on the poor lad’s face as he struggles to make the desired impact.

Up front, there has been much discussion on the work-rate (or lack thereof) or Romelu Lukaku, but he’s only part of the problem. Plenty of great sides can afford a number nine who stays more in a fixed position, and many Blues would want to see the Belgian simply stick the ball in the back of the net. It’s therefore out wide that more work is needed, more goals are needed, and again where problems lie with current personnel. Deulofeu and Lennon have scored only 17 Everton goals in 128 appearances, and even Mirallas has notched only 7 times in his last 47 games after a more prolific opening to his Goodison career. With the exception of Lennon, none of those three could particularly be accused of working very hard when not in possession either.

So why aren’t Everton at least trying to recreate the Dutch style? Why do we only occasionally press? How come things went so well at Southampton for Koeman so quickly? Regarding the team’s style, I think Koeman is hedging his bets. He’s realised the squad isn’t suited to what he wants to achieve and, aware of the fact that playing in too open a manner leaves our defence exposed and increases the risk of being thrashed (like the final days of the Martínez era) has decided to keep things tight and play ‘percentage’ football until such time that he can re-shape the squad more in his own model.

As for why the Saints did so well so quickly under his stewardship, I think there are two major factors at play. Firstly the core of the Southampton team he took over in 2014 had just experienced 18 months of aggressive, pressing football under Mauricio Pochettino, to which he added players experienced in the Dutch/Barcelona way like Tadić, Clasie, Romeu and van Dijk. Secondly Southampton have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League – averaging just 25.2 years old in their 3-1 over Bournemouth last week. Appropriately enough, our oldest team this season (29.8 years) was in the 1-0 defeat to the Saints last month. This age difference is telling in the modern Premier League.

So what’s the solution? Well, it’s not rocket science in my eyes. Patience. Koeman and his team need a year or two to rebuild this squad to make it more youthful, energetic, aggressive and capable of playing at a high tempo. However, I genuinely believe that only Coleman, Gueye, Barkley and Lukaku of our current first XI are likely to be featuring heavily in the manager’s mid to long-term plans. The likes of Baines, Barry and Williams are fine players but will need to be phased out over the next two years to make way for fresh blood. This means that we Evertonians probably need to write this season off as a ‘learning curve’ where things probably won’t end up much better than either of the last two seasons and wait for the rebuilding to commence.

I hope that Koeman is now discovering that 4-3-3 is probably his best way forwards. This will allow him to withdraw Barkley into a deeper position where he can still create, but will have the game in front of him (giving him more options). Gueye and another (possibly Tom Davies) will work alongside him to regain and retain the ball and release it quickly to incisive wide attacking players (Memphis Depay?) who will get closer to Lukaku more readily while allowing the full-backs to charge forwards to great effect.

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