NO WAY FORWARD
Whoever ends up in charge of Everton they face a long hard slog without a top goalscorer
AMID all the hope and hype of a new manager and a new dawn for Everton, one thing remains the same.
David Unsworth can do all he likes to instil faith, belief, passion and fire but he can’t conjure up a striker to supply the 25 goals Romelu Lukaku provided last season.
He can’t even fashion one to lace the Belgian’s boots. And that is at the heart of the problem that haunts the Merseyside club as they face the prospect of a battle through the winter months with the dead hand of the relegation zone clutching at them.
The caretaker manager got it badly wrong here at Leicester – the wrong team and the wrong formation against a side whose own new manager returned to the strengths that brought the title to the King Power Stadium.
Gifting space to the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Demarai Gray with an unsophisticated, outmoded 4-4-2, and selecting wingers like Kevin Mirallas and Aaron Lennon who offered no protection to their shellshocked full-backs was always asking for trouble.
But the key point here is that new Foxes boss Claude Puel has title-winning forwards to call on in Vardy and Mahrez, players who will punish any lapses with vicious counterattacking incision, just as they did in a one-sided first half .
Unsworth recognised his error and changed things at the break, allowing Everton to control the second period, to create some chances, some hope.
Yet by then it was far too late, largely because, in the absence of a viable Lukaku replacement, they never looked like scoring,
Ronald Koeman couldn’t solve that problem and got the sack. It is hard to see how Unsworth can avoid a similar fate, or press a coherent claim to taking the job on a permanent basis, with the forwards he has.
Oumar Niasse, who replaced
the ineffective, lightweight, disinterested Mirallas at the break, worked hard enough and at least provided some raw energy. But raw is the word – he is certainly not the man to get Everton out of the bottom three.
Dominic CalvertLewin (right) is a different prospect but still a youngster and not fully ready for carrying the weight of expectation on his shoulders alone. The same can be said of the other two kids Unsworth turned to. Tom Davies and Jonjoe Kenny made mistakes in the first half that led to Leicester goals but should not be blamed. To have any chance of getting the job, the temporary Blues manager must adapt quickly to the demands of the Premier League. He is a decent coach, as his work with the Under-23s shows, and not the “glorified PE teacher who shouldn’t be in charge of a man’s team,” as radio pundit Joey Barton disgustingly claimed.
Yet this is a rarefied level where any weakness is viciously exposed.
Puel may not have won any entertainment contests at Southampton, who he took to eighth spot last season, but he is an intelligent coach with a top-class record.
Here he showed his understanding of the game, and showed up Unsworth’s inexperience, by reverting to what Leicester do best – defend hard and counter even harder. They were rampant in the first half and the only surprise was they didn’t score earlier.
From an Everton free-kick they ran the length of the pitch, with Gray’s pace destroying the Merseysiders before Mahrez’s cross was finished by Vardy.
Soon after, Gray’s shot was sliced into his own net by Kenny, and the lesson was complete.