The fans have turned on boss Koeman and that spells big trouble
AS MUCH as it pains me to say it, Ronald Koeman is on borrowed time.
It’s looking grim for him because when the fans go against you these days, it spells nothing but trouble.
There is a strange, almost self-fulfilling momentum when things start to go rotten.
I’ve been there as a player.
When I was a young kid just emerging at Liverpool, Graeme Souness went through it as the manager.
The atmosphere starts to filter through from the manager to the players, the pressure from the crowd starts to have an effect.
I’m not saying everyone will react like this, but when the crowd turns against a manager and his team, they pick out every small mistake and, all of a sudden, many of the players become scared.
Scared to get on the ball, scared to try things because they know if it goes wrong, there will be a backlash.
Some go missing and then you’ve got massive problems.
Even a couple of wins don’t change the momentum because the first mistake after that, the first bad result and you’re back in it... which is something Slaven Bilic is experiencing right now. Koeman probably knows he’s in a terrible situation.
At the end of the game against Lyon, that is the first time I’ve seen him go to the officials and have a rant at them.
That tells you a lot about the pressure he’s feeling. You can see it in his demeanour. And it is hard to see how he can change very much to turn things around before January when Everton can at least sign players.
The problem he’s got is the club made the wrong signings in the summer.
When the window opened, everyone thought they’d done great business early – IT’S not just at Everton where I am sensing tension over some of the signings. How much did Arsenal spend on Alexandre Lacazette? £60million? And yet Arsene Wenger doesn’t seem to trust him yet. That seems strange to me because no way can you spend that much on a player and then argue he needs time to get used to the Premier League or get fit. I’m not having that.
Yet, he’s played only one 90 minutes for Arsenal... and that was in his first game for his new club!
I found it strange Lacazette (left) didn’t start at Liverpool, after he’d scored on his debut. And I find and I hold up my hands and count myself among them – because they acted decisively and got good players at decent prices. But they got players in the wrong positions. They needed strikers, but bought No.10s. Wayne Rooney is still a good player, but he was never going to be a central striker any more. So why bring in two more No.10s? And, don’t forget, they didn’t sell Ross Barkley, either. So where does Koeman go now? Well, he has to drop his arrogance – and I don’t mean that as a criticism. All managers need to show they know what is right, but sometimes you have to realise you can’t always be correct. And don’t play half your team out of position – just because you paid a lot of money for a player. Don’t rotate just because you it a bit puzzling that a £60m striker is always hauled off first when subs are made.
Maybe Wenger is being cautious, yet it seems as though it’s a signing that was not made by the manager.
It’s probably a good thing for Wenger he’s going up against a team, in Everton, with even more feel you have to. Everton needed a win against Lyon desperately, yet they seemed to be saving players for the Arsenal game because Koeman thought it was more important.
Now there’s massive pressure on this game because a weakened side lost again. It doesn’t make sense. A lot of what has happened at Goodison doesn’t make sense.
There seems to be a lot of tension between the manager and his director of football.
You can sense some players were brought in by Steve Walsh and Koeman doesn’t want to play them.
Koeman is carrying the can alone, but did he make all the signings himself ?
One more thing I’d do is get Duncan Ferguson more in the picture.
He is sitting on the bench and he’s an Everton legend. Use him more, get a connection with the fans and get them behind you. It’s the only hope now. I wonder if that moment when Ashley Williams got everyone going, got the fans behind the team, could be taken into the Arsenal game. Lord knows, they need that passion and they need some fight.
Lose, and it looks bleak for Ronald Koeman. pressure than he’s under right now. Yet Goodison can be a horrible place for Arsenal to go and, after the Watford game, a scrap is probably the last thing they need.
It will be fascinating to see whether the manager puts his faith in Lacazette. If he doesn’t, then it will tell you everything about who signed the player.