Everton suffered a 3-2 defeat at Watford on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League. The loss means that the Toffees have recorded just one win in their last 11 outings in all competitions.
The honeymoon period for the Merseysider’s Dutch boss Ronald Koeman is definitely over. The former Southampton chief recently revealed in an interview that he did not believe he had the players to play the pressing game he likes his teams to play.
The lack of players that can press has led to Koeman having to play a more compact system. That compact system at Watford consisted of the Toffees playing three defensive midfielders Gareth Barry, Idrissa Gueye and James McCarthy led to a complete lack of creativity in the middle of the park.
All three are decent enough players. However, none of the trio are ever going to produce much in the way of creativity, which the Toffees have lacked completely in recent games. The creative players that were on the pitch from the start Gerard Deulofeu and Kevin Mirallas struggled to create anything of note.
Everton striker Romelu Lukaku is criticised for his lack of work-rate, but when he was given two chances against Watford he scored with both.
Not only were the Toffees poor going forward, the team’s defence was all over the place. Koeman has taken a lot of stick from the Everton fans in recent weeks, but he must be tearing his golden locks out with the way his team are defending at the moment.
Everton fans are worried by the team’s current plight, as some have even claimed the team are worse now than under the previous boss Roberto Martinez.
Toffees boss Koeman is likely to splash the cash in January if the clubs hierarchy allows him to anyway. If not then the team could be in major trouble by the end of the campaign.