{"id":537275,"date":"2019-11-27T17:01:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T22:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=537275"},"modified":"2019-11-27T17:01:49","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T22:01:49","slug":"lack-of-attacking-firepower-to-defensive-mistakes-the-problems-at-everton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/11\/27\/lack-of-attacking-firepower-to-defensive-mistakes-the-problems-at-everton\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of Attacking Firepower to Defensive Mistakes: The Problems at Everton"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a promising summer in which over \u00a3100 million was spent on new players, trust was given to manager Marco Silva to improve on Everton’s 2018\/19 Premier League finish of eighth and break into the European places. Instead, after 14 games, Everton are languishing in 16th and Silva’s job is under huge scrutiny<\/a> as another season threatens to go to waste.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s 2-0 loss<\/a> at home to Norwich City<\/a>, who were bottom of the Premier League before the match, was already Everton’s seventh defeat of the season, their third at home and fifth in their past six league games against newly-promoted teams – as many as in their previous 48 combined.<\/p>\n

The Problems at Everton<\/h2>\n

Where to Start?<\/h3>\n

The match summed up Everton’s season so far: not clinical enough in attack and fragile in defence as the away side’s two goals came from mistakes at the back. The first came from Yerry Mina’s half-hearted challenge which allowed Teemu Pukki to find Todd Cantwell, who finished well after an unmarked surge into the box, while Gylfi Sigurdsson’s poor clearance fell straight to Dennis Srbeny, who sealed the game.<\/p>\n

“We started to be afraid and that was the problem,” Silva said<\/a> after. “You can never, ever, ever be afraid to play football. I think it is not the main thing to talk about the situation. It is not the moment to talk about individual positions. We have to look what is best for us as a club and for myself and the players as well – but always the club has to be at the top.<\/p>\n

“If you are really disappointed with the afternoon I can imagine they [fans] are as well and they have the reaction to the manager and the players. When you lose a match, the first person they look to is the manager. Football is like that. The message is I respect what is their feeling, for sure. It is not the first time they felt the way they felt this afternoon.”<\/p>\n

Silva knows he is a man under pressure. Heavy investment has been made into a squad that boasts plenty of talent but the results aren’t matching the promise. The irony is that stats-wise, Everton are performing well in a number of key areas. They rank sixth for average shots per game this season (13.8) and also sit in the top half when it comes to dribbles (17.8) and key passes (10.2) per match. Defensively, only Manchester City<\/a> are conceding fewer shots per game than Everton (8.5) and the Toffees sit fifth for total completed tackles (239).<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>