Everton should stick with Silva; hiring and firing the boss is the road to nowhere
MARCO SILVA deserves more time to build a team in his identity at Everton – but let’s get real.
Zonal marking isn’t working. He needs to ditch it because it’s a weakness which is dragging him down.
But I hope Everton are not going to fall into the trap of making another change in the dugout. On the evidence of the last couple of years, hiring and firing managers is the road to nowhere.
If the Toffees see themselves as one of the so-called Big Six, instead of competing every year for ‘best of the rest’ in seventh, they are not going to get there by chopping and changing bosses every year.
Since Farhad Moshiri bought a 49.9 per cent stake in the club three years ago, they have spent £300million – but throwing £50m jigsaw pieces at the puzzle won’t necessarily make it fit together.
Tottenham have had the same manager, and by far the lowest net spend, of any top-six club in the last five years. They are much further down the road towards challenging for the title than Everton.
If you look at the facts, not the hysteria, you’ll find the Merseyside club’s current position of ninth after 26 games is about the going rate since David Moyes left Goodison in 2013.
Since then, they have finished fifth, 11th, 11th, seventh and eighth. Fans may be frustrated by some aspects of the playing style but, in golfing terms, this season is roughly par for the course. It’s 32 years since Howard Kendall (left) led Everton to their second title in three years, and 24 years since they won a trophy of any description.
A quarter of a century of stagnation is not going to be cured overnight. Changing manager has not been the answer – because Silva’s 36.7 per cent win ratio is now lower than predecessors Sam Allardyce (38.6), Ronald Koeman (41.4) and Roberto Martinez (42.7).
Silva inherited a squad with a handful of survivors from the Moyes era and handfuls of players signed by the three managers who came in before him.
It’s true Everton have not replaced Romelu Lukaku’s 25 goals a season adequately but, in my view, Silva’s major signings – Richarlison (bottom left), Andre Gomes, Lucas Digne and Bernard – have all been decent.
Like Unai Emery at Arsenal, he deserves at least three or four transfer windows to build a side in his own image.
But, but, but...
I cannot understand why Silva persists with zonal marking when their record of shipping goals from set-pieces is so dreadful.
Since his first game in charge of Hull City two years ago, no top-flight manager in English football has presided over more goals conceded from dead-ball situations than Silva’s 35.
When the ball comes into your box from a corner, free-kick or long throw, the keynotes are leadership, responsibility, organisation and courage.
Where are the players taking responsibility? Where are the voices in the dressing room taking ownership of a repeat horror show?
ALWAYS nice to see an old team-mate take the plunge and land his first job as a manager.
Good luck to my old pal Bryan Hughes, an underrated player in our days together at Birmingham, as he takes charge of my home-town club Wrexham.
As part of the side who took Wrexham to the FA Cup quarter-finals in
1997, he is a popular appointment.
And if he restores them to the Football League after 11 years in the wilderness, he will become a legend in North Wales.