Halt a deep-rooted, damaging slide
Forget any long-term vision, structural changes or philosophy for now; this is a salvage operation first and foremost. Six years of mismanagement, woeful recruitment and illogical decision-making by Farhad Moshiri have taken Everton to the precipice of relegation. The club has not suffered a relegation in 71 years but a team assembled at exorbitant cost are destined for the Championship on current form. Everton collected 10 points from the opening four games before injuries struck Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Rafael Benítez’s divisive reign started to unravel. They have added nine points from the past 16 matches and are the worst-performing team in the Premier League over that extended period.
The two main strikers have returned, albeit rustily in Calvert-Lewin’s case after four months out, but to an error-prone team without confidence, without a clear strategy and with the confusion sown by playing for seven managers in less than six years (caretakers included) reflected in individual performances. Four points above the relegation zone, Everton face a critical test away at Newcastle in their next league game and have Manchester City, Tottenham, West Ham, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal still to play. Frank Lampard needs to instil belief and an effective gameplan immediately.
Deal with dysfunction at the top and Goodison toxicity
Evertonians are in open, understandable revolt over how Moshiri and the board have not only spurned an opportunity to close the gap on the Premier League elite but driven a wedge between themselves and a team, and managers, that most cannot identify with. The club’s latest farcical managerial search showed what a soap opera Everton have become.
The chairman, Bill Kenwright, is understood to have led the initial move for Roberto Martínez, the first manager Moshiri sacked at Everton and who received a payout of more than £10m after a legal dispute. The Royal Belgian Football Association unsurprisingly rejected Everton’s proposal for Martínez to job-share in a World Cup year and the plan quickly floundered.
Moshiri, and his business associate Alisher Usmanov, took the lead again and favoured Vítor Pereira, a coach with no Premier League experience who had been overlooked for the Everton manager’s job twice before. The hostile reaction of fans to his candidacy prompted Pereira to pitch his credentials on a live television interview, to widespread astonishment and concern. The move for Pereira, the continued influence of the agent Kia Joorabchian and Moshiri’s recent open letter to supporters – in which he made no acknowledgement of any mistakes on his part and lavishly praised a board also culpable for Everton’s chaotic decline – deepened the fear that the billionaire is blind to the failings that have turned Everton into one of the Premier League’s most dysfunctional clubs.
One manager cannot correct their fundamental problems but Lampard will require the strength to ignore interference from above while restoring hope to a disgruntled fanbase. It is a considerable task, but a semblance of unity is needed for the primary objective of avoiding relegation. Get Goodison onside and the old place can act as a spur, not a hindrance, to any Everton player.
Improve defensive organisation and concentration
Duncan Ferguson was “on the floor” after the first game of his second spell as caretaker manager ended in defeat by Aston Villa, but he did oversee improvement in several areas compared with performances under Benítez. Everton had more shots, faced fewer attempts on goal and won more possession against Villa compared with the average under Benítez but lost because of a recurring issue: poor defending at a set piece. Emiliano Buendía’s decisive header was the 10th goal Everton have conceded from a set piece this season, on this occasion as a consequence of Richarlison switching off at the near post. There have been six individual errors leading to goals this term, equalling the amount for the entirety of last season under Carlo Ancelotti.
There has not been a settled central defensive partnership all season, largely down to Yerry Mina’s injury problems, the most creative defensive outlet, Lucas Digne, fell out with Benítez and was sold to Villa days before the manager was sacked, and the January recruits Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson, signed for an initial total of £29m after long-term interest, did not make Ferguson’s squad. Benítez was the latest Everton manager to question the players’ character – though privately, in his case – with impressive performances on the training ground regularly disappearing on a matchday.
Find an answer to the tricky question of balance
Everton’s main assets, and best hope of dragging themselves out of danger, are in attack with Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin, although both have endured injury-hit campaigns and are yet to lift the side since their returns. Demarai Gray, Andros Townsend and Anthony Gordon, two Benítez signings who have impressed and the homegrown talent he introduced regularly to the team, have been Everton’s brightest out-field performers.
Behind them, however, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucouré have struggled as a partnership and been frequently overrun. A switch to a three-man midfield with André Gomes would allow Everton to control possession better and reduce their vulnerability to counterattacks – in theory, at least – but that would entail sacrificing a forward. The dilemma has been overtaken by events, however. Doucouré is out for at least a month with a groin problem and his fellow central midfielders Tom Davies and Fabian Delph are also sidelined until March. Benítez had targeted a central midfielder for January. He was loaned the winger Anwar El Ghazi instead. Fortunately for Everton in regards to that area of the pitch, it appears Lampard has persuaded Donny van de Beek to join from Manchester United on a season-long loan deal.
Oh, and …
As well as staving off relegation and winning over an angry crowd, there is the significant matter of working without a director of football, head of recruitment, manager of scouting, head of sports science and rehabilitation coach. The previous incumbents all left in the past two months.
