The control freak who’s lost control

ENGLISH football clubs should think hard before they get rid of proven managers. There aren’t enough of them to go around. Does Ronald Koeman fall into that bracket?

Three Dutch league titles — the most recent 10 years ago — and one Spanish Cup suggest he is right on the cusp, but he does have a reputation for improving players. Koeman, 54, is a coach’s coach.

So, if his reputation can help him a little, what about his football?

Two wins from 12 games counts as lousy PR and as anybody who has seen his team play recently will tell you, Everton are getting worse.

Koeman is a divisive figure at Goodison Park.

One staffer on the football side described him this week as ‘the best manager I have ever worked for’. His attention to detail and the rigour of his preparation are known to be exceptional.

Others at the club say differently. They claim he is aloof, has failed to bond with players and has no understanding that life at a football club is about more than just the first team.

One source revealed this week that Koeman has been known to socialise with staff one night and virtually walk past them without recognition the next day.

Lots of things at Everton are now shaped in the former defender’s image. There have been changes at the training ground and his team have a new look, too.

So, Everton and main shareholder Farhad Moshiri have invested in his vision since luring him from Southampton and that is one of the reasons why he is now under such pressure to give something back. Koeman’s team are unrecognisable from the one that played fluently and expansively last season. No width, no energy, no focal point and the two-week international break did nothing to improve them.

Everton were fortunate to get a point from a static and laboured performance at Brighton last Sunday and Thursday’s chaotic performance against Lyon sends them into tomorrow’s meeting with Arsenal with the look of a team simply waiting for something bad to happen.

After Sunday, Everton do not face top-rate opposition in the Premier League until they play Liverpool on December 10. So, a window for improvement is around the corner.

But Koeman doesn’t look or sound as though he knows what his best team is at the moment and that sense of inertia does nothing for his prospects.

Koeman told agents in the summer that it was definitely him — rather than director of football Steve Walsh — who was in charge of recruitment, and if that is the case then only he can be blamed for the clear holes in his recent transfer activity.

Yesterday he said he was aware of the issues. But for a manager who likes to be in complete control, he has lost it where he needs it most — on the field.