Everton were the PL media darlings pre season & all Evertonians were delirious with top 4 possibilities. How quickly things change! He'll surely turn it around but I think Koeman'a tried to do too much to soon. Bought too many quality players (apart Cuco) & his jigsaw is all messed up.
Everton failed to buy an adequate replacement for Lukaku and with the exception of Keane (who hasn't settled yet) their defence is getting old. Jagielka (35) Williams (33) Baines (almost 33), Coleman is out with a long term injury and Cuco shouldn't be a first team player. Could be a long season for Everton fans.
On the flip side, they have played Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd so far. When they came up against someone else (Stoke), they won and kept a clean sheet. Bmouth, Burnley, Brighton in their next three PL games. Mess up in them, and that is bad.
The league table doesn't make bad reading after 5 games. I am sure we all looked at those first 5 and expected to get points on the board. You have still got to do it and with room for improvement in some areas we can improve on last seasons points total. For all of our mediocre start and for all of Manchester United s wonderful start, a win, and its a big if, leaves us just 2 points behind them. I think we have a more settled team and for that I am sure we will click going forward and genuinely believe we are a better team than our rivals like Everton for that 7th place. Anyway it's an unpredictable league with many ups and downs but I think we will have more ups. COYR
I am trying to puzzle out why they are playing 5 defenders (plus the two holders). And it is not just because they were at Old Trafford because they do it in all the games Factors are: - Not trusting Keane and Williams to be a central defensive 2 (despite doing it at Burnley and Swansea) - Not trusting whoever they have as their right back choice for any given game (I think they have tried 3 or 4 people so far) to be part of a back four - Fear over Baines losing pace so needing more defensive support (I am not sure if this is true but it would explain the search for the left sided central defender who could also play left back) - Obsession with the new fad formation - Desperately trying to find a system that allows them to fit in both their record signing and their returning hero It would seem to be a combination of the lot (although the first one doesn't quite make sense) However it is not working. You can sort of understand them not signing a first choice right back because they have one on the books on high wages who will ultimately be first choice is he fully recovers. But what about loan options? Surely Jenkinson is better than Cuco (or has he really deteriorated in the past couple of years?) There is no real excuse for throwing 45m at Siggurdsson when they already had Rooney, Klaasen and Davies who could play there. One of Siggy or Klaasen was just a vanity signing. The money could have gone towards a striker replacement. And if accounts are true that it was Giroud they were after that is crazy because they are too slow By way of comparison - at the moment they are less solid than us, have more pressure (due to money spent) and seem to create even less chances (so can't even try to claim that they are unlucky). It is odd because on paper their defensive unit of Pickford, Williams, Keane, Gueye and Morgan looks really solid
They need an "up front" Jack Stephens would also start every week there. To be fair they've had a bad set of fixtures in the Prem so far, next few games at home against more modest opposition so we'll see.
It was always going to take a while to integrate that many players and like you say they've had a tough start. Ron is a kind of streaky manager too. They really ****ed up by not signing a striker though.
So after 5 games: Saints level on points with Liverpool and Spurs. One point above Arsenal and Everton in the bottom three
Equally many white wash his good points. The truth is somewhere in between, as is often the case with these things.
