Toffees need to focus their ambitions
ARSENE WENGER changed his team in the Europa League last week, and got away with it. Ronald Koeman tried it and didn’t.
Both managers prioritised today’s Premier League fixtures and, while Arsenal rescued themselves against FC Koln, Everton were humiliated against Atalanta and Koeman was left questioning his players’ desire.
Today Wenger is at Chelsea, while Koeman is at Manchester United. Neither can afford to lose more ground on sides expected to occupy two of the topfour spots.
With Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool around, seven into four clearly doesn’t go.
Wenger says his preferred route back to the Champions League is through League placing. He clearly doesn’t want people to think that he has given up on the top four already.
For Koeman, though, the Europa League is the only practical chance to promote Everton from Europe’s second-string competition to its cash-rich big brother.
Their default League finish is now seventh place. Even though they’ve spent a lot of money to break through that glass ceiling, Koeman would probably bite your hand off for seventh spot now.
But the Europa League is still very winnable for the Merseysiders if he prioritises it now. In the group stages one bad result is always retrievable.
Last season Jose Mourinho was lukewarm towards the competition in its early stages, but he still fielded an almost full-strength side in all six group matches and Manchester United qualified comfortably.
When the knock-out stages came around in February, he could more accurately assess how things stood in the Premier League. He judged that winning the Europa League was an easier route into the Champions League.
But, to be in a position to make that decision, you must qualify from your group. Everton should really have no problem doing that because compared to Atalanta, Lyon and Apollon Limassol financially, they are Paris Saint-Germain!
Lyon have never spent more than £20m on a player. Atalanta’s record is £5m and Apollon have yet to break the £1m barrier.
In fact, the £45m the Toffees spent on Gylfi Sigurdsson is more than the transfer record of any other club in the competition bar Arsenal.
The Europa League is there for the taking for any rich Premier League club. But Koeman and his players need to put their minds to it, before it’s too late.